Bridging the gap: integrating AR and VR production line training to enhance furniture carpentry students’ understanding of production processes

ABSTRACT

Large-scale furniture production involves complex manufacturing processes and methods. However, Taiwanese schools face limitations in terms of space and equipment, restricting students from engaging in furniture prototype creation or small-batch production. As a result, students often struggle to grasp practical aspects of large-scale furniture production, leading to a partial understanding of manufacturing processes and methods. To bridge this gap, this study introduces Augmented Reality (AR) technology and miniaturized furniture production lines in a school’s woodshop. AR can be used to guide students through miniaturized production stages, emphasizing semi-automated furniture production features. Additionally, Virtual Reality (VR) technology is combined to provide an immersive experience of real-world, large-scale furniture production, allowing students to understand processing scenarios and conditions in facilities of other countries. In an experiment involving 30 first-year students, an experimental group (15 participants) received mixed AR and VR instruction, while a control group (15 participants) received traditional teaching methods. Findings reveal that AR and VR integration enhanced students’ comprehension of differences between the school workship and overseas large-scale furniture production facilities. This strategy improved their furniture production knowledge, and fostered adaptability to various production conditions and methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmented reality
• virtual reality
• small-scale school furniture workshop
• furniture manufacturing procedures and processing methods
• large-scale production lines

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Special thanks to the woodworking class students, teaching assistants, the Taiwan's Ministry of Education for funding [grant numbers PHA1090553/PHA1110069/PHA1121013], and the furniture production experts and vocational trainers for their invaluable contributions to this study