Rail employees in the UK train with VR Glove

In the UK, railway employees are training work processes in virtual reality. The London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is working together with Senseglove.

Employees of the British railway operator will be trained in virtual reality in the future. In the VR training sessions, they will learn how to install train ramps for wheelchair users during a short break. The VR glove is supposed to provide the right feeling.

Special VR glove for immersive training

London North Eastern Railway (LNER) cooperates with Senseglove for VR training. The start-up has been producing haptic VR gloves and designing VR training for the industry for over four years.

Since the Senseglove Nova was presented at CES 2021, the company has been able to win over renowned partners such as Airbus, the Royal Dutch Army and Siemens. The German automotive group Volkswagen also uses the Senseglove Nova in assembly training. Employees practise installing a sliding door on the T6 minibus.

The Senseglove Nova is slimmer and more inconspicuous than other VR gloves. Instead of clunky artificial joints, it uses tendon-like threads that are pulled along the fingers by a motor with magnetic friction brakes. Weights of up to two kilograms per finger are thus simulated realistically.

VR training is positively received

Employees of LNER are equipped with a Meta Quest 2 for the VR training. The haptic feedback of the VR glove is intended to provide a realistic feeling for movements and the parts simulated in the virtual environment.

Virtual tools should feel like they do in real life, and the engagement of the mechanics is also simulated physically correctly. The training takes employees into a virtual wagon. There, they have to use special tools to remove a ramp for wheelchair users from the device provided, prepare it and mount it on the access.

An initial case study by LNER and Senseglove on the jointly designed VR training was positive. According to the study, 90 percent of the participants would feel able to carry out the assembly in reality without further training.