The rapidly changing industrial landscape is causing companies to quickly adapt to new market demands. Major players in the mining and construction sectors are undergoing disruptive trends, including digitalisation and servitizations. Simulations and Digital Twins enable more flexible fleet management, advanced monitoring, prediction, and decision support. However, there is a need for making these support systems more accessible for all the stakeholders involved, from operators to site managers and higher ranks. A possibility is to leverage the explanatory capabilities of eXtended Reality and Artificial Intelligence. This preliminary research study examined three Decision Support System solutions that were characterised by different levels of visualisation, contextualisation, and immersion. A qualitative study of N = 10 industry experts provided insights that were coded into design guidelines. Practitioners identified an increasing demand for scalable, user-centric solutions that support stakeholders throughout the decision-making process. XR and AI were well-received, and the importance of integrating value-driven design principles to ensure system trustworthiness and usability was widely acknowledged. Highlights Development of three DecisionSupport Systems with varying immersion and functionalities (e.g. XR and AI) for quarry vehicle management. Analysis of criticalities and potential of existing solutions through focus groups with industry experts. Definition of a set of guidelines and insights to support Decision Support Systems designers and decision makers. 

This paper discusses the current challenges in the development and adoption of Extended Reality (XR) applications in the industry, based on the author’s experience collaborating with various sectors. It identifies knowledge gaps, organizational barriers, and usability issues, describing how these aspects influence one another. Their underlying factors are then analyzed using insights from industrial case studies, revealing possible solutions and emerging opportunities to break and reverse dysfunctional cycles in the XR development roadmap and to maximize the value of XR tools for companies and organizations.

Product-Service System (PSS) development prioritizes the technical aspects of implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI), overlooking the strategic rationale behind its adoption. This paper investigates the impact of AI on value co-creation within industrial contexts by analyzing successful AI applications in PSS development across diverse domains like industrial systems engineering and healthcare technology. Through a multiple case study approach, this paper aims to explore the strategic motivations for using AI and its influence on the co-creation process. The analysis reveals several key benefits of AI adoption. Firstly, it fosters collaborative and iterative development, empowering both internal teams and external stakeholders to actively participate in value co-creation. Secondly, AI helps uncover novel value propositions that might remain hidden through traditional methods thus boosting the value co-creation. Finally, AI acts as a catalyst for building dynamic knowledge ecosystems. By facilitating data-driven insights and collaboration, AI enables continuous learning and adoption within the co-creation process. 

Increasing sustainability expectations requires support for the design of systems that are reactive in minimizing potential negative impact and proactive in guiding engineering decision-making toward more value-robust long-term decisions. This article identifies a gap in the methodological support for the design of circular systems, building on the hypothesis that computer-based simulation models will drive the development of more value-robust systems designed to behave positively in a changeable operational environment during the whole lifecycle. The article presents a framework for value-robust circular systems design, complementing the current approaches for circular design aimed at increasing decision-makers' awareness about the complexity of circular systems to be designed. The framework is theoretically described and demonstrated through its applications in four case studies in the field of construction machinery investigating new circular solutions for the future of mining, quarrying and road construction. The framework supports the development of more resilient and sustainable systems, strengthening the feedback loop between exploring new technologies, proposing innovative concepts and evaluating system performance.

Extended Reality (XR) technologies are increasingly popular to support the engagement of different audiences and stakeholders with Discrete Event Simulations (DES) due to their capability to deliver more accessible visual and immersive experiences. XR applications can be developed either using modules integrated into DES software or game engines, providing different sets of opportunities in the environment design. However, there is a lack of development guidelines for such environments, considering visualization, information presentation, interaction, and navigation aspects. The paper presents a systematic review of the use of XR for DES, relating the results to XR design heuristics to identify and discuss major design tradeoffs. Finally, a case study from the mining sector is exemplified to illustrate possible. solutions to balance the trade-offs. © 2024 The Authors

Extended Reality (XR) is increasingly relevant in engineering education due to its potential to enhance learning through immersive experiences. Despite growing interest, limited research addresses how students themselves perceive the role of XR in learning within the CDIO (Conceive–Design–Implement–Operate) framework. This study investigates how XR, particularly Virtual Reality (VR), supports three CDIO objectives—creating design alternatives, evaluating concepts, and implementing solutions—based on the experiences of master students in a mechanical engineering program. Using a qualitative case study approach, semi-structured interviews were analyzed inductively and thematically. Results show that students view VR as a powerful tool for understanding complex phenomena, visualizing consequences, and motivating engagement. The findings suggest that VR can enhance engineering students’ capabilities and promote deeper learning when implemented thoughtfully. This work contributes a student-centered perspective to XR in education, encouraging further research into its responsible and effective integration across the CDIO framework.

Climate change is one of the most important challenges for society to solve. However, it cannot be fixed solely through greenhouse gas reductions; it requires proactive efforts. This paper investigates how Digital Twins (DT) can serve as a support for Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), which is required to achieve climate resilience. Data was collected from a workshop targeting the role of DT in CCA, which consisted of 92 participants from the public sector in various European countries. The data was analyzed and disseminated to establish guiding principles on how DT can be deployed and designed to best fit the characteristics of CCA work. Firstly, use cases were identified based on cross-examination between CCA activities and stakeholders. Secondly, a list of needs for developing DTs to serve as CCA support was developed. Together, these aspects provide a solid base for more effective DT design in supporting the transition to a more resilient society.

In the last couple of decades, the research on 3D facial expression recognition has been fostered by the creation of tailored databases containing prototypical expressions of different individuals and by the advances in cost effective acquisition technologies. Though, most of the currently available databases consist of exaggerated facial expressions, due to the imitation principle which they rely on. This makes these databases only partially employable for real world applications such as human-computer interaction for smart products and environments, health, and industry 4.0, as algorithms learn on these ‘inflated’ data which do not respond to ecological validity requirements. In this work, we present two novel 2D+3D spontaneous facial expression databases of young adults with different geographical origin, in which emotions have been evoked thanks to affective images of the acknowledged IAPS and GAPED databases, and verified with participants’ self-reports. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first three-dimensional facial databases with emotions elicited by validated affective stimuli.

Decision-makers in the industry are facing increasingly complex chal-lenges and need to provide solutions complying with several functional and non-functional requirements. Decision-making processes should involve and allow collaboration of multidisciplinary teams, sharing knowledge and data to identify optimal solutions and deliver the best value for the customer. At the same time, the metaverse era offers new possibilities to face this complexity. In particular, Extended Reality technologies allow to exploit a virtual world mirroring the real one, both in the current conditions and possible future scenarios. This opportunity is given by the use of Digital Twins and the integration of real-world data—accessed through IoT tech-nologies—and simulation data—from new designs and configurations’ models. In this work, we present a framework to integrate different decision drivers, actors, and agents in the design of collaborative virtual environments for decision-making. Then, we present a case study applying the framework to the current needs of a construction equipment manufacturing company. Finally, we discuss results with the industrial partner, identifying potential advantages and issues of the virtual environment in future development, as well as future challenges in the field. 

Academic institutions are increasingly required to prepare future practitioners to face complex sustainability challenges. The need to foster the development of different skills, attitudes, and multidisciplinary collaboration raised the interest in alternative learning approaches. Game-based learning can be a tool to achieve a variety of desirable learning outcomes, including sustainability and collaborative attitudes change. We present a pilot study investigating the potential of a board game on sustainability risks and opportunities in product development and life cycle, performing a test with different student audiences. The paper discusses our results of the experiment, including a survey following the game, qualitative analysis of students' feedback, and observations during the game sessions. Additionally, we relate insights from students' reflections to CDIO learning objectives. We then illustrate lessons learned and the potential advantages of using the game compared to other teaching approaches and as a complementary tool. Finally, we propose future directions and recommendations for the use of the board game and game-based learning in sustainability education with different student audiences. © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.