Template concept for VR environments: A case study in VR-based safety training for human–robot collaboration

• We presented a template concept for creating replicable VR environments for safety training in HRC. • Four templates, environment, interactions, visualizations, modu-flex script are presented. • Submodules are developed to provide the required behaviour to fulfil goal of each template. • Development of modules targeted safety measures based on safety standards. • We validated template concept in an industrial use case. The industry 4.0 vision has accelerated technology development, particularly in the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in industry, such as the metaverse. However, creating VR environments is known to be a laborious task, which means their full potential is not yet fully utilized. There is a need for a reusable VR model that enables faster generation and population of VR environments. This research aims to find solutions for quicker development and deployment of VR environments in an industrial context. Specifically, this paper proposes one solution for creating and modifying these environments more efficiently. The focus of the research, along with the associated industrial use cases, is to develop safety training for human–robot collaboration in final assembly scenarios using VR environments. The paper will introduce a template concept, which includes individual templates and the full architecture to deploy these templates, allowing for faster modification of VR environments to meet specific use case needs. This template concept is developed using two separate use cases from academia and industry.