PhD students

Nalin Randeniya

Swinburne University (Supervisor: Ambarish Kulkarni)

PhD topic – Train maintenance training enhancements with transformative technologies for productivity and quality measures

Research summary

Current training programs for rail industry employees are delivered in physical training facilities, leading to additional time and costs. Instead, this project aims to implement advanced augmented virtual reality tools to deliver training for workers in a digital training environment. Creating a digital environment enables the rail workers to effectively comprehend, operate and become familiarised with machinery and subsystems via either a virtual world with virtual reality or an overlay on the physical world augmented reality. Once developed, these programs can be implemented to suit a wide range of other rail-related training requirements.

Expected completion date

December 2020

Key achievements

• Virtual reality based train door fault diagnosis training module development for Sydney Waratah train maintenance program.
• Developing a mathematical model to assess learning related cognitive performance metrics.
• Researching on integrating bio-feedback acquisition technologies to verify the effective skill transfer during training programs.

Publications

Randeniya, N., Ranjha, S., Kulkarni, A. and Lu, G. (2019). Virtual Reality Based Maintenance Training Effectiveness Measures – a Novel Approach for Rail Industry. 2019 IEEE 28th International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE), Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2019, pp. 1605-1610.