Virtual reality for assembly methods prototyping: a review

Assembly planning and evaluation is an important component of the product design process in which details about how parts of a new product will be put together are formalized. A well designed assembly process should take into account various factors such as optimum assembly time and sequence, tooling and fixture requirements, ergonomics, operator safety, and accessibility, among others. Existing computer-based tools to support virtual assembly either concentrate solely on representation of the geometry of parts and fixtures and evaluation of clearances and tolerances or use simulated human mannequins to approximate human interaction in the assembly process. Virtual reality technology has the potential to support integration of natural human motions into the computer aided assembly planning environment (Ritchie et al. in Proc I MECH E Part B J Eng 213(5):461–474, 1999). This would allow evaluations of an assembler’s ability to manipulate and assemble parts and result in reduced time and cost for product design. This paper provides a review of the research in virtual assembly and categorizes the different approaches. Finally, critical requirements and directions for future research are presented

Virtual Hand Representations to Support Natural Interaction in Immersive Environment

Immersive Computing Technology (ICT) offers designers the unique ability to evaluate human interaction with product design concepts through the use of stereo viewing and 3D position tracking. These technologies provide designers with opportunities to create virtual simulations for numerous different applications. In order to support the immersive experience of a virtual simulation, it is necessary to employ interaction techniques that are appropriately mapped to specific tasks. Numerous methods for interacting in various virtual applications have been developed which use wands, game controllers, and haptic devices. However, if the intent of the simulation is to gather information on how a person would interact in an environment, more natural interaction paradigms are needed. The use of 3D hand models coupled with position-tracked gloves provide for intuitive interactions in virtual environments. This paper presents several methods of representing a virtual hand model in the virtual environment to support natural interaction

Development of a virtual reality milling machine for knowledge learning and skill training

Current methods of training personnel on high cost machine tools involve the use of both classroom and hands on practical training. The practical training required the operation of costly equipment and the trainee has to be under close personnel supervision. The main aim of this project is to reduce the amount of practical training and its inherent cost, time, danger, personal injury risk and material requirements by utilising a virtual reality technology. In this study, an investigation into the use of Virtual reality for training operators and students to use the Milling Machine was carried out. The investigation has been divided into two sections: first the development of Milling Machine in the 3D virtual environment, where the real machine was re-constructed in the virtual space. This has been carried out by creating objects and assembling them together. The complete Milling machine was then properly modelled and rendered so it could be viewed from all viewpoints. The second section was to add motion to the virtual world. The machine was made of functions as for the real machine. This was achieved by attaching Superscape Control Language (SCL) to the objects. The developed Milling machine allows the users to choose the material, speed and feed rate. Upon activation, the virtual machine will be simulated to carry out the machining process and instantaneous data on the machined part can be generated. The results were satisfactory, the Milling Machine was modelled successfully and the machine was able to perform according to task set. Using the developed Virtual Model, the ability for training students and operators to use the Milling Machine has been achieved

S.57392

The idea of creating and writing a thesis loomed before me as an awesome task I would never be able to bring to fruition. However, the time came when I had to sit down and seriously ask myself how I would like to spend the remainder of my time here at RIT. Regretfully, I cannot say that there was a burning passion within me. I began to approach the thesis topic and asked myself, What is out there that has yet to be fully explored? Looking through several articles and speaking with a diverse group of people, I became involved with ongoing discussions regarding Virtual Reality. Although I knew almost nothing about the topic, I realized that it was unexplored territory that may or may not develop into something beyond our highest expectations. The decision had been made, my thesis topic would be Virtual Reality . I would begin research and explore the possibilities of creating a visual essay on the topic of Virtual Reality

Three-dimensional user interfaces for scientific visualization

The focus of this grant was to experiment with novel user interfaces for scientific visualization applications using both desktop and virtual reality (VR) systems, and thus to advance the state of the art of user interface technology for this domain. This technology has been transferred to NASA via periodic status reports and papers relating to this grant that have been published in conference proceedings. This final report summarizes the research completed over the past three years, and subsumes all prior reports