Requirements for the Implementation of Virtual Reality in Learning Factories

Current trends such as increasing flexibility and new digital technologies are changing the jobs in the modern manufacturing industry and constantly demand new competencies from its employees. There-fore, companies are focusing on the training and competency development of their employees. In the context of this trend, learning factories play an increasingly important role. They offer an environment in which employees can develop competencies under practice-oriented conditions. The Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW) at the Technical University Darmstadt operates a modern learning factory called CiP (Center for Industrial Productivity) for research, training and education purposes. Within the on-going interdisciplinary research project “PortaL” (Virtual action tasks for personalized adaptive learning) the institute develops personalized virtual reality training scenarios that are intended to become part of trainings within the learning factory. This paper presents the methodology and results of a systematic literature review to determine general requirements for the implementation of virtual reality in learning factories. The determined require-ments are presented and classified into eleven clusters. This leads to a well-structured illustration to support learning factory operators, software developers, and researchers not to lose sight of the differ-ent requirements from the literature during the development, evaluation, and optimization of virtual reality in learning factories.