Bayer VR

A VR drone training app for Bayer

May 2022 - August 2022

Team:

  • Ivery Chen - design, modelling, texturing, scripting, deploying

  • Joshua Robinson - support with debugging

  • Brenda Teakert - project manager

  • Jason Sankovitch - manager

Software Used:

  • Unity

  • Substance Painter

  • Blender

  • adb

  • Oculus Desktop

Outline:

Bayer’s Crop Design division put in a request recently - a lot of the UAV flyers felt like they needed a tool to help them train new flyers - and they imagined having a VR training app. When I was onboarded, the app was merely a line of idea. I researched, brainstormed with the users, designed and implemented this VR training app for Bayer, summer of 2022. The project aims to design a cost-effective, flexible and sustainable module for UAV flyers.

I studied the materials, slides, videos, and the whole process took a long time. We are designing this project so that remote learners do not have to do it.

Research:

To decide what goes into the module, I conducted research with the UAV flyers at Bayer. Some of the highlights are:

How I built it:

Next, I retopologised the M300 model inside Blender, reduced total drone poly count from 600,000 to 20,000. I also remodelled parts so drone can be assembled, twisted, folded in VR. I brought everything into Substance Painter and created realistic materials ready to import into Unity.

Storyboard:

Before I wrote any code, I brought everything into Unity. I tested out the models to see if they are ‘functional’, foldable and constructable in VR.

UX Design:

The experience is controlled by a tablet. This is a continuation of design made by Tristan Lassiter, my hiring manager, on previous VR projects. 

Since the headsets we are using do not support HandTracking 2.0, I came up with alternative ways to imitate small motions with clunky hand controllers.

Outcome:

Future Development:

  • Coded mistakes: allow users to comfortably break things in VR

  • Create a realistic environment

  • Allow sign in, connect to the other training modules

  • Allow multiplayer in the headset, remote interaction with the instructor