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Igor FerreiraBack to the lab

Iron Ore Pelletizing in VR

Walk into a pelletizing plant with your hands only. The fines yard is ready, with the reclaimer working the pile; the plant comes station by station, in process order, towards voice-guided training.

Watch the video
Video excerpt, muted
Role
Project lead, with more experienced engineers on the script
Period
Aug 2026 – present
Status
in progress
  • 3D and virtual reality
  • Unity 6
  • URP
  • OpenXR
  • Meta Quest 3
  • rastreamento de mãos
  • C#
  • Claude Code
  • Codex

Plain explanation

The problem

Anyone who needs to get to know a pelletizing plant, such as a new employee, a visitor or a training class, depends on an on-site visit to see how iron ore, finer than sand, becomes a pellet.

That visit is expensive, restricted and risky, and it cannot be repeated every time someone needs to learn. And the path is long: from the yard to the finished pellet, the ore goes through six stages, and part of it goes back to be reprocessed.

What it does

  1. Takes you in with your hands only

    You put on the virtual reality headset and walk, turn and jump from one point to another with hand gestures, with no controllers at all.

  2. Follows the process in order

    There are 17 stops, from the yard where the ore arrives to the yard of finished pellets, in the same order in which the material moves through the plant.

  3. Starts the machines

    In the yard, you press a button on the panel and the machine digs into the pile with a bucket wheel, with dust rising. In the plant, the mill and the disc where the pellet is born already turn.

  4. Shows what goes back

    The path is not a straight line: coarse material returns to the mill, water returns to grinding, off-size pellets return to the disc and heat returns to the furnace.

On screen

Frames from the project's commercial, taken from the app's own scene.

1. Hands. No controllers; the first-person avatar wears a uniform and protective gloves.
2. Lookout. Pinch and drag to walk, twist to turn, point to teleport; walking by pinch is still being tuned.
3. Reclaimer. A field panel starts the machine; it digs, returns empty, and the pile is restored.
4. Yard. From the lookout, the whole line can be read, from the pile to the gallery; the yard is the finished part.
5. Grinding. The plant is still in measured volumes, without finish, which is why it only appears from above.
6. Thickener. In the thickener, the rake bridge already turns; this is where the water returns to grinding.
The view from the headset: both hands in grey gloves and yellow sleeves over the lookout's floor, with the reclaimer in the background, under the text "On the Meta Quest, hands only".

Tap outside the image to close it.

From the lookout, the yellow bucket-wheel reclaimer over the fines yard pile, behind the guardrail.

Tap outside the image to close it.

The bucket-wheel reclaimer working the pile, with dust rising, under the text "The wheel digs, the dust rises".

Tap outside the image to close it.

The fines yard line seen from the lookout: the pile, the reclaimer, the conveyor and the transfer house in the background.

Tap outside the image to close it.

The start of the grinding area seen from above, in untextured reference volumes, with the blue conveyor in the foreground.

Tap outside the image to close it.

The thickener seen from above, with the rake bridge over the tank, under the text "in development, early stage".

Tap outside the image to close it.

What changes

17 stations

of the process, in 6 zones, in the order the ore moves through them, from the fines yard to the pellet yard.

Newcomers can get to know the whole process before setting foot in the plant, as many times as they need, without booking a visit and without risk.

Each stop was designed as a viewpoint: where the person stands, what they look at and from how far. Whoever teaches can show each stage from the spot where it is best understood.

And the same walkthrough can serve new-employee onboarding, institutional visits and, with voice narration, guided training, in which the person learns and gets their questions answered while walking.

Technical explanation

Problem, improvement and result

Problem
Teaching a continuous pelletizing process, in 6 zones and with four recirculation loops, depends on an on-site visit to the plant, which is expensive, restricted and risky. The goal is a safe, repeatable and available environment for training, onboarding new employees and institutional presentations.
Improvement
A walkthrough in Unity 6 (URP, OpenXR) on a standalone Meta Quest 3, with hand tracking only: pinch to walk and turn, point to teleport. The design unit is the station (viewpoint, distance, what is seen); the zones are separated by the state of the material, and each one only sees its neighbors. The scenes are data-generated from a single plant definition, with the domain tested outside Unity.
Result
17 stations in 6 zones in the app: the fines yard with finish, 3 stations and 7 visiting points, and the plant's 14 in measured volumes, with machines running their cycle (reclaimer, mill, thickener, filters and the disc at 6 rpm). On the Quest 3, through the device's telemetry at the desk: on September 1, 2026, the yard stayed between 13.89 and 13.91 ms per frame (72 FPS) across 25 stops, 117 of 117 samples, for 20 minutes and with no thermal throttling; on September 23, the whole walkthrough passed at 16 of 21 stops and on temperature.

Evidence

  • 17 stations in 6 zones, in process order

    A count of the route design and of the visiting points built in the app: 3 stations in the fines yard, with 7 visiting points, and 14 in the plant, with one visiting point in each.

    Measured.

  • 16 of 21 stops within the frame time on the Quest 3, with temperature passing

    Measured on September 23, 2026, through the device's telemetry: the other five stops are the first visit and two plant stations with too many draw calls, which are the next fix.

    Measured.

The goal

To be voice-guided virtual reality training that teaches and leaves room to ask questions while studying. Today the walkthrough shows the stations in process order; the narration and the teaching flow come in once the zones are ready.

The walkthrough was designed for training, onboarding new employees and institutional visits, in place of an on-site visit, which is expensive, restricted and risky. It has not yet been tested with an audience.

What is ready and what comes next

  • Ready: the fines yard, with the pile, the bucket-wheel reclaimer, the conveyor with its return underneath, the transfer house with tower and gallery, the dust and the field panel that starts the machine.
  • Under construction: the plant’s 14 stations, from grinding to the pellet yard, in measured volumes and without finish. The mill, the thickener’s bridge, the filters and the balling disc already move.
  • Next: the plant’s finish, the narration and the signs, the pilot with an audience and the physical link from the yard’s gallery to grinding.
  • In the same app: the electrical room module, behind its own door, presented as another project in this portfolio.

On screen

1. Hands. No controllers; the first-person avatar wears a uniform and protective gloves.
2. Lookout. Pinch and drag to walk, twist to turn, point to teleport; walking by pinch is still being tuned.
3. Reclaimer. A field panel starts the machine; it digs, returns empty, and the pile is restored.
4. Yard. From the lookout, the whole line can be read, from the pile to the gallery; the yard is the finished part.
5. Grinding. The plant is still in measured volumes, without finish, which is why it only appears from above.
6. Thickener. In the thickener, the rake bridge already turns; this is where the water returns to grinding.
The view from the headset: both hands in grey gloves and yellow sleeves over the lookout's floor, with the reclaimer in the background, under the text "On the Meta Quest, hands only".

Tap outside the image to close it.

From the lookout, the yellow bucket-wheel reclaimer over the fines yard pile, behind the guardrail.

Tap outside the image to close it.

The bucket-wheel reclaimer working the pile, with dust rising, under the text "The wheel digs, the dust rises".

Tap outside the image to close it.

The fines yard line seen from the lookout: the pile, the reclaimer, the conveyor and the transfer house in the background.

Tap outside the image to close it.

The start of the grinding area seen from above, in untextured reference volumes, with the blue conveyor in the foreground.

Tap outside the image to close it.

The thickener seen from above, with the rake bridge over the tank, under the text "in development, early stage".

Tap outside the image to close it.

How it works

The map follows the process in order, and the zones are separated by the state of the material: from dry solids in the yard to product in the pellet yard.

  1. Yard

    The fines pile, the bucket-wheel reclaimer, the conveyor and the transfer house.

    ready
  2. Grinding

    Mill, hydrocyclones, thickener and filtering; coarse material returns to the mill, and water returns to grinding.

    under construction
  3. Mixing

    Roller press, silos and mixer; the binder falls onto the moving conveyor.

    under construction
  4. Balling

    On the disc, the pellet is born; the off-size one returns to the disc.

    under construction
  5. Furnace

    The bed, the thermal stages and the gases; the heat returns to the furnace.

    under construction
  6. Product

    Discharge, screening and the pellet yard.

    under construction

Each zone only sees its neighbors, and the person crosses from one to the next through a short passage: the material makes the long journey; the person does not. Today, between the yard and the plant, the crossing is closed, through a door.

The project thinks in stations, not machines. Where the person stands, what they look at and from how far.

Decisions

The choiceInstead ofCost accepted
The station as the unit

Instead of: Modeling machine by machine.

Cost accepted: Each station first needs the viewpoint, the distance and what is seen, and only then the machine.

The process with its four loops

Instead of: A straight line from the yard to the pellet.

Cost accepted: The map becomes a folded line, and each loop has to be read in the right place.

Hands only, no controllers

Instead of: The headset's controllers.

Cost accepted: Walking by pinch is not yet smooth; pointing to teleport works better.

Data-generated scenes, from a single plant definition

Instead of: Placing and measuring everything by hand in the scene.

Cost accepted: Every meter is generated, never typed, and the plant's domain needs its own tests, outside Unity.

The zones before the teaching

Instead of: Narrating before building.

Cost accepted: Today the walkthrough has few signs, and the guiding voice comes later.

How it was built

  1. Aug 21
    The restart

    The idea restarts from scratch, in Unity 6 for the Quest 3; the first flow is the yard with the reclaimer.

  2. Aug 30
    The map

    The map of 6 zones and 17 stations, in process order, with the four loops.

  3. Sep 1
    The plant in volumes

    The whole plant in reference volumes, and the yard's comfort approved in the headset.

  4. Sep 13
    The hands

    Locomotion with hands only, by pinch and by pointing to teleport.

  5. Sep 23
    The zones before the teaching

    The overall plan puts the zones before the narration, and the Quest measurement shows where frame time fails.

  6. Sep 25
    The conveyor

    The yard conveyor's belt wraps around the pulleys and returns underneath.

I lead the project, with more experienced engineers who help with the script. I choose what to build and judge it in the headset; the development is done with AI agents (Claude Code and Codex), under rules I define.

Limits

  • The graphic finish and the comfort approved in the headset belong to the fines yard; the plant's 14 stations are in measured volumes, with a visiting point in each one.
  • The next step is to bring the finish to the plant, starting with the balling disc, which already has its domain, motion and 28 tests; measure the current version and cut the draw calls of the two stations over the limit; and, once the zones are ready, voice narration and a pilot with an audience.

Today and next

Today

An early-stage prototype. The fines yard is ready; the plant's 14 stations exist in measured volumes, with a visiting point in each one, and the finish comes station by station. Since October, the same app has gained the electrical room module.

Next

  1. Bring the yard's finish to the plant's stations, starting with the balling disc.
  2. The narration and the teaching flow, once the zones are ready, towards voice-guided training.
  3. Measure the current version in the headset and cut the draw calls of the stations that went over the limit.
  4. A pilot with an audience, after the zones and the narration.

The images are frames from the project's commercial. The first two come from a test recording in the headset, on an earlier version of the app; the others were rendered on the computer from the app's own scene, in Unity, with a scripted camera, and are not the app's locomotion. The text and markers over them belong to the video, not to the app's screens.

Next project on the tourImmersive Electrical Room