Incorporating Virtual Reality into the Teaching and Training of Grid-Tie Photovoltaic Power Plants Design

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article focus on using VR for teaching Photovoltaic (PV) Power Plants Design. This topic is quite relevant both in the application area and the use of VR in the teaching methodology. Nevertheless, some aspects should be improved to clarify the contribution.

The introductory section focuses on the motivation but misses the focus on the purpose and objectives of the project.

The section on related work includes a good set of references but misses those related to learning methodologies. Also, more VR related references could enhance the article. There is no clear description of the literature gap the article addresses.

Section 3 describes the research methodology, but it should be more detailed on the main contributions of this work:

What support is provided to the teacher to create the PV power plant, besides the one provided by the tools SketchUp and Unity 3D; What is the agency of the student in the virtual environment? Can (s)he change the components? What interaction is provided? What differentiates the virtual tour from a real tour?

The diagrams of the combiner box and the emulation of the energy generation are 2D. Could infographics replace it? What is the added value of VR in this case?

Extensive editing of English language and style is required...

Results show good results, and the teaching methodology is a great contribution to learning. Congratulations on this effort.

Overall, what is the major innovation from a virtual tour?

 

Author Response

Thanks to the Reviewer for their suggestions. We agree with their appreciation, thus, attending the suggestion, the new version of the paper includes all the suggestions

 

Comments to the Author

The introductory section focuses on the motivation but misses the focus on the purpose and objectives of the project

Reply: Please observe the final part of the introduction, it has been changed.

Therefore, well-trained and experienced personnel are needed, the universities are the principal leaders to prepare the students to face industry and train personnel but the high costs of didactic equipment for teaching become unachievable for most public universities in emerging nations such as the case of Mexico. Therefore, new training-education strategies are emerging, especially the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology is growing dramatically, taking the advantages that being immersed in a fictitious realism, the students can interact, learn a process to provide maintenance, solving problems in a safe environment; thus, being an auxiliary tool for professors to reinforce the teaching, implementing practices like if the students were immersed in the industry so they can develop the necessary competencies.

 

The section on related work includes a good set of references but misses those related to learning methodologies. Also, more VR related references could enhance the article. There is no clear description of the literature gap the article addresses.

Reply: In order to clarify the literature gap, section 2 was modified. References related to learning methodologies are now included (ref. 12-16) as well as more VR references, those in engineering and specifically those linked to electrical energy that is associated to this article (ref 36-42).

 

Section 3 describes the research methodology, but it should be more detailed on the main contributions of this work: What support is provided to the teacher to create the PV power plant, besides the one provided by the tools SketchUp and Unity 3D; 

Reply: The following text was added to clarify the support to the teacher:

The main purpose of the presented teaching methodology is to motivate the self-learning, immersing the student into the TF strategy. The tool supports the teacher, in the presented case, providing laboratory practices due to the lack of equipment and contribute to the appropriated design of PV systems teaching.

What is the agency of the student in the virtual environment?

Reply: The following text complement the agency of the student in page four.

The students do a supervision activity where they are capable to act independently in the facilities, during the inspection, they can verify solar array connections, to analyze the one-line diagram and to measure the principal electrical variables without forgetting the use of personnel protection. Figure 3 shows that the first activity is the selection of appropriate gloves, boots, and safety helmet to avoid any accidents.

Can (s)he change the components? What interaction is provided?

Reply: The designed virtual world at this stage, the student can walk through the facilities of the faculty to verify the entire installation, they can make connections between panels, measure variables in the combination box reviewing the dimensioning, and selecting personal protective equipment.

 

What differentiates the virtual tour from a real tour?

Reply: The following text was changed to clarify the differences, please observe section 4.3 

 Regarding the virtual world, 95.8\% of the respondents agree that the exhibited virtual environment has no differences between the facilities of the faculty and the virtual world, except that the faculty does not have the photovoltaic system installed, however, the equipment is very similar to the real world.

 

The diagrams of the combiner box and the emulation of the energy generation are 2D.

Reply: The combiner box is not a 2D diagram, it was designed in 3D. Figure 6 was modified to avoid confusion.

Could infographics replace it?

Reply: Author agree with reviewer, the following text was added to complement this commentary

 Although Figure 7 could be taught just with an infographics scheme, this activity seeks that the student understands the process of energy conversion in an animated way beside the inverter and at the interconnection point to reinforce how the waveforms vary just with radiation.

The English language has been reviewed.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper presents a Virtual Reality (VR) system for training University students in the design of Photovoltaic Power Plants.  The paper is merely a use case of using VR for training purposes and despite there are no flaws in the method presented the contribution of the paper to the scientific literature cannot be considered as significant. 

The VR training system user should be aware of the hazards when approaching/interacting with electrical circuits (Figure 5). If a user is trained in a VR environment without being aware of the hazards then it might be quite likely that he will not pay the proper attention in the real environment as he gets used to an interaction behavior in the training environment that neglects hazards. The authors should discuss about that in the paper.

The state of the art part could benefit from the following literature:

D. Mavrikios, N. Papakostas, D. Mourtzis, G. Chryssolouris, "On industrial learning & training for the Factories of the Future: A conceptual, cognitive & technology framework", Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Special Issue on Engineering Education, Volume 24, No.3, pp. 473-485 (2013)

Juraschek, M., Bütha, L., Posselta, G., Herrmann, C., Mixed Reality in Learning Factories, Procedia Manufacturing 23 (2018) 153–158

Centea, D.,Singh, I.,Elbestawi, M., SEPT Approaches for Education and Training using a Learning Factory, Procedia Manufacturing, 31, 2019, Pages 109-115, doi: 10.1016/j.promfg.2019.03.018

Mavrikios, D., Alexopoulos, K, Georgoulias, K., Makris, S., Michalos, G., Chryssolouris, G, Using Holograms for visualizing and interacting with educational content in a Teaching Factory, 9th Conference on Learning Factories 2019, Procedia Manufacturing 31 (2019) 404–410

There are several English language errors that should be addressed by the authors (see attachment for some of those errors).

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thanks to the Reviewer for their suggestions. We agree with their appreciation, thus, attending the suggestion, the new version of the paper includes all the suggestions.

The VR training system user should be aware of the hazards when approaching/interacting with electrical circuits (Figure 5). If a user is trained in a VR environment without being aware of the hazards then it might be quite likely that he will not pay the proper attention in the real environment as he gets used to an interaction behavior in the training environment that neglects hazards. The authors should discuss about that in the paper.

Reply: Authors agree with the reviewer, there was a huge mistake not mentioned in the paper. The VR tool considers this activity as the first action. Therefore, figure 3 and text are added to correct the mistake.

The state of the art part could benefit from the following literature:

Reply: The suggested references (12-16) related to learning methodologies are now included. 

There are several English language errors that should be addressed by the authors (see attachment for some of those errors)

The English language has been reviewed.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors addressed the main questions raised in the review.

I would just add a general revision to correct minor writing problems.

And in the description of Figure 1 it would be better to address the 3 parts from left to right.

Author Response

Thanks to the Reviewer for his suggestion.

I would just add a general revision to correct minor writing problems.

Reply: the writing reviewed.

 

The description of Figure 1 it would be better to address the 3 parts from left to right.

Reply: The description of Fig. 1 has been changed

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf