A Virtual Reality-Based Real-Time Machine Maintenance System for Smart Factory Applications

Abstract

Smart factories increasingly rely on cyber-physical production systems, industrial Internet of Things devices, and automated machine tools to improve productivity, flexibility, and quality. However, machine maintenance in many factories still depends on manual inspection, fragmented alarm records, two-dimensional documents, and the experience of senior technicians. These limitations reduce maintenance efficiency and make it difficult to provide immediate, spatially understandable, and explainable support when machine failures occur. To address these problems, this study proposes a virtual reality-based real-time machine maintenance system for smart factory applications. The proposed system integrates machine sensing data, programmable logic controller signals, computer numerical control operation logs, historical maintenance records, three-dimensional machine models, and technician feedback into a unified real-time maintenance framework. Through edge data acquisition, fault diagnosis, digital twin modeling, immersive virtual reality visualization, and knowledge-guided decision support, the system enables technicians to observe machine status, identify abnormal components, follow step-by-step repair procedures, and collaborate with remote experts in an immersive environment. The research design includes real-time machine data synchronization, multimodal maintenance feature extraction, fault probability estimation, remaining useful life prediction, virtual factory scene construction, and maintenance workflow recommendation. The expected results demonstrate that the proposed system can reduce troubleshooting time, improve maintenance accuracy, support technician training, enhance safety awareness, and strengthen data-driven maintenance management. This study contributes to smart manufacturing by combining virtual reality, real-time industrial data, artificial intelligence-based diagnosis, and knowledge-based maintenance reasoning for practical machine service applications.