Virtual Reality Paint Trainer (VRPT)

Training

Problem Statement: The DoD spends an estimated $327 Billion annually on operations and maintenance, with aircraft paint maintenance costing $1 Million per day. The lack of consistent quality from painters contributes to excessive costs, waste, and increased exposure to hazardous materials.

Description of the Innovation Solution: The Virtual Reality Paint Trainer (VRPT) incorporates technical and process orders to establish a standard set of guidelines based on Air Force regulatory requirements. The solution enables painters to effectively receive individual and multi-user team-based training for specialized processes and tooling such as aircraft painting, depainting, Aqua Miser pressure washer, paint gun set up, man lift operation, and pressure manifold configuration.

The solution integrates mixed reality and AI technology to virtually simulate painting environments and military assets like the C-130, Global Hawk, C-5 Galaxy, F-15, F-16, A-10, C-17, KC-46, KC-135, radomes, off-airframe components, and more. To ensure effective training, students receive real-time feedback through visual markers indicating accuracy based on aircraft curvature, painting distance and speed.

Benefits to the DoD: Utilizing Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) hardware, the VRPT facilitates cost effective training and reduces the amount of time, labor, and money spent on aircraft painting rework. This innovative solution especially trains on and encourages compliance with critical health and safety regulatory requirements, ensuring the workforce performs all activities with a safety-first mindset.

Innovation Challenges: Before the VRPT was developed, other existing technologies failed to provide the level of detail necessary to improve the inefficient training processes facilitated by the DoD. There was a need for training that incorporated realistic aircraft and environments, utilizing paint guns, paint carts and paint Safety Data Sheet (SDS) information to include viscosity, and measuring paint thickness measurements (mil) linked to a Learning Management System (LMS).

Technical Maturity/Demonstration Results: The VRPT solution continues to evolve to meet customized DoD requirements. The USG has leveraged the investment to deploy this solution at multiple Air Force Bases to include Robins AFB, Tinker AFB, Hill AFB, and Little Rock AFB. The LMS reports indicate the proficiency of painters has increased by 30%, yielding an observed cost savings of $114 Million in flow days and paint materials within the past two years.