Enhancing complex technical environment training with immersive digital twins
Wei, Jionghao
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130232
Description
Title
Enhancing complex technical environment training with immersive digital twins
Author(s)
Wei, Jionghao
Issue Date
2025-07-25
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Caesar, Matthew
Department of Study
Electrical & Computer Eng
Discipline
Electrical & Computer Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Immersive Digital Twin
3d Gaussian Splatting
Computer Vision
Scene Reconstruction
Iot
Cleanroom Simulation
Language
eng
Abstract
Immersive digital twins hold great promise for advancing training and education in complex technical domains, offering interactive, spatially rich alternatives to traditional instruction. In semiconductor cleanrooms—environments where access is restricted and procedures are intricate—novices often rely on passive materials such as manuals and orientation videos, which do little to foster spatial understanding or procedural fluency. While recent photorealistic reconstruction techniques, such as NeRFs, have improved visual fidelity, they struggle to scale to large environments and do not readily support interactive simulation, thereby limiting their effectiveness for experiential learning. This thesis investigates whether an immersive digital twin with continuous photorealistic rendering and integrated environmental simulation can effectively support users in acquiring spatial and functional knowledge of a complex technical environment. To facilitate the investigation, we developed a realistic digital twin pipeline that constructs a cleanroom digital twin using 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) for enhanced visual realism. This pipeline was integrated into Unity, incorporating a structural skeleton and dynamic simulations of airflow, temperature, pressure, and humidity. We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation consisting of a pre-test/post-test user study with 24 students unfamiliar with cleanroom environments, as well as expert interviews with nine graduate researchers and one cleanroom engineer. Results show significant learning gains among users and positive feedback from experts regarding the system’s realism and training value. These findings provide empirical evidence that immersive digital twins, when designed with both visual and functional fidelity, can enhance learning outcomes in complex technical environments.
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