A maintenance time estimated method based on virtual reality

Traditional method of maintenance time estimation is based on the time regular obtained from large statistical data. However, this method requires physical prototypes, which is much more difficult during design and development stage. Moreover, to obtain accurate data, a large amount of experiments need to be conducted to calculate maintenance time and eliminate the error. A method is proposed in this paper, which uses maintenance platform based on virtual reality to avoid the necessity of physical prototype. In this method, based on maintenance simulation analysis under virtual reality environment, Methods Time Measurement (MTM) and compensation-based time prediction are integrated. Then, according to difference between the actual repair time and the estimated time from virtual simulation, time compensation model is built considering the factors of proficiency, fatigue and maintenance environment. Finally, a real case is used to validate the model. This method could give suggestions of the evaluation of quantitative maintenance factors in the early design stage of the product.