«A Week without Turnstiles». A VR helmet allowed high school students to «work» in the assembly of MC-21 aircraft

INRTU held a master class on using VR-technologies in aircraft engineering. During the interactive lesson the high school students plunged into the aircraft assembly factory process. The event was a part of the All-Russian program «A week without turnstiles».

Alexey Govorkov, Director of the School of Information Technology and Data Science, and Nikodim Podrez, a university employee and future professor, met with high school students from the school №33.

The high school students «was transported» to the assembly shop of MC-21 aircraft at Irkutsk Aircraft Plant with the help of VR-helmet and joysticks. The virtual simulator, created at INRTU Student Innovation Bureau «Aviator», was programmed in Unity 3D.

Digital environment allows going around the airсraft from all sides. It is also possible to select tools and find working algorithms on the stands. It's enough to press a lever to mount the assembly tooling, cut holes and install rivets.

According to Alexey Govorkov, virtual technology acquaints with the equipment and teaches how to bring manipulations to automatism. It is important to avoid mistakes in production.

In addition, the high school students learned interesting facts about augmented reality (AR). This is the name of technology that transforms reality with the help of virtual elements. Augmented reality is implemented in industry. For example, Airbus and Boeing use it for assembling aircrafts and controlling electrical harnesses.

«A Week without Turnstiles» has been held since 2015. The initiator was Russian Engineering Union. The main goal of meetings is to get pupils interested in engineering and technology. INRTU «A Week without turnstiles» program included master classes on aerodynamics and aircraft assembly, VR-technologies in aircraft engineering and 3D modeling of an aircraft element in Siemens NX, a parent meeting with employees of Irkutsk Aircraft Plant and the university.