Metaverse For Battery Manufacturing: Connecting Students From Different Geographical Locations To Solve Battery Manufacturing Problems In The Virtual Reality Space

Laboratory practices are essential to prepare students and professionals to drive future innovations in the field of energy storage and conversion. However, universities and industries working in the battery field encounter challenges such as effective and efficient training on complex concepts related to battery production, mostly due to the lack of access to battery prototyping facilities or the limited availability of battery manufacturing pilot lines for training purposes. This Concept introduces an innovative educational platform in Virtual Reality (VR) named Battery Manufacturing Metaverse (BMM). BMM promotes accessibility, inclusion and collaborative learning of Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) manufacturing through an interactive and flexible VR representation of a LIB manufacturing pilot line. It enables collaboration among students and researchers from different geographical locations. Users can explore electrode and cell chemistries and adjust manufacturing parameters with informative feedback from a cell’s composition to the functioning of the manufacturing equipment. BMM does it with real-time collaboration using avatars and voice chat. This platform aims to connect universities of i-MESC (Interdisciplinarity in Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion, previously MESC+), an Erasmus+ MSc. Program, enabling seamless knowledge sharing and training. BMM represents a transformative step in battery research and education, offering an immersive, interactive environment without geographical barriers to pave the way towards global education and safe training in the energy sector.