Virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) has been widely used in the industrial fields, such as product design, manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, performance evaluation and other life cycle stages. The technical characteristics of VR can be summarized as virtual world, immersion, sensory feedback, and interactivity. The virtual world or virtual environment (VE) is a mapping of the real world. By reproducing the real environment, the operator can interact with the virtual world truly. For the research and application in the industrial fields, the modeling and simulation of the virtual world reflecting the physical nature are particularly important. The connection of virtual reality and real reality can be reflected in the expansion of two aspects from an industrial point of view: AR and digital twin (DT). On the one hand, AR technology reduces the workload of 3D modeling by integrating the virtual environment with the real world, and improves the credibility of the virtual environment and the experience of the operator. In particular, the term "augmented reality (AR)" was first proposed by Boeing in the early 1990s when they used the AR technology in auxiliary wiring systems. On the other hand, DT, one of the core technologies of the new generation of intelligent manufacturing, realizes the sharing of digital information through the mapping of the real and virtual worlds. In this special issue, we have selected 6 papers (4 review papers and 2 research papers) covering the most relevant technologies and fields in VR/AR/ DT applications, including cable layout design, digital human technology, target tracking, assembly guidance and virtual-real mapping manufacturing.