Integrated Virtual Reality for Education and Training in Machining: a Virtual Lathe Prototype

Virtual Reality represents a useful educational environment that permits to join traditional symbolic-reconstructive cognitive modality with perceptive-motory cognitive modality improving learning processes and reducing investments, accidents and architectural barriers. Virtual Reality offers environments where you can immerse yourself interactively in "ad hoc" unreal phenomenology; PC becomes a tool (extensor) of student imagination (virtuality) that allows the required verification (realism). Moreover, hypermedia systems have showed great benefits in the knowledge building according to the modern theory on reticulated structure of learning process. The authors have started the realisation of a prototypal system for machine-tools teaching in virtual environment, integrated with hypermedia environment, for technical universities and schools. Its development is based on the AIADI? (Direct and Indirect Learning Integrated Environment) model. The first prototype is aimed at development of a traditional centre lathe; it contains technical information and didactic rules shared by virtual reality/hypermedia integrated environment. The final objective is to develop a virtual classroom where students and teachers can share a virtual machine shop and perform machining routes.