Virtual Reality Technology in Product Design and Manufacturing
Virtual Reality Technology in Product Design and Manufacturing
Virtual Reality Technology in Product Design and Manufacturing
Qingjin Peng
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T, 5V6, Canada
pengq@cc.umanitoba.ca
Operating room simulation (2006) PC operation simulation (2006) Furniture assembly (2006)
Drain valve assembly (2005) Bicycle assembly (2005) Truck collision simulation (2005)
A modular mechanical arm (2004) City planning (2004) Internal planning (2004)
IGRIP is a robotic simulation tool for robot design, because the users need special interfaces for
evaluation, and off-line programming. It can different devices to integrate these devices into a
incorporate with real-world robotic and peripheral system. The link and transform of data within
equipment, motion attributes, kinematics, dynamics these devices hamper the effect of the immersion
and I/O logic. It can optimize robot locations, motions and real-time.
and cycle times, and detect collisions between robots, • 3D environment modeling process: The most VR
parts, tools, fixtures and surroundings. systems use CAD toolkits as tools to generate
Virtual NC is a simulation tool for machine tools, their 3D models, such as Pro/Engineer and
controllers and material removal. It can validate AutoCAD, but it takes a long time to build a new
processes, tooling setups and NC production programs virtual environment for a special application.
with real-time and 3D solids modification. • Precision: It is a conflictive in the demand of
Quest is a discrete event simulation tool used to speed and precision for VEs. The details and
model, experiment and analyze facility layout and resolutions of a VE have to be reduced in order to
process flow. It provides real-time interaction, increase the speed of image rendering, but it
modification of model variables and viewing decreases the accuracy of a process simulation.
parameters during running. • There are not good supporting textbooks and
Process Planning is a process and resource planning laboratory manuals for the VR teaching. VR
support environment. The resulting process diagrams technologies are developed very rapidly. The
can provide an overview of the sequences and links course materials have to be updated annually. The
between processes and resources early in product limited lab resources limit the number of students
design conception. The planning tasks include layout to take the course and do projects.
planning, time measurement, process and resource • VR deals with multi-disciplinary subjects. It
planning, product evaluation, and cost analysis. requires the knowledge of computers, information,
DELMIA Assembly provides a geometry-based image processing, communication, automatic
solution with the ability to link and view product data control and engineering.
from CAD systems. It can be used to view the • Engineering students do not have enough
assembly sequences and processes, and link each programming skills. The course has to be an
process step to the manufacturing resources utilizing a application-oriented study.
user interface. The assembly process and links to the
product and resource data are stored in a shared
database of product, process and resource information. 6. The special designed topics for
engineering students
5. Problems and challenges
Based on the background of engineering students and
the need of engineering applications, following two
There are still not many Colleges and Universities
topics are specially designed for the VR course.
teaching VR today. It has to be justified from the
technical need, barriers, cost, instructor availability
1). Data exchange, user interface and data
and market for graduates. Some current barriers for the
communication in VR-based product design and
VR education and applications include as follows.
manufacturing systems.
• Cost: VR systems, especially for immersive
systems, require a significant investment in
Currently, VR hardware and software are developed
hardware. It is not affordable to most Colleges and
separately without a universal standard. When
Universities, especially just for the teaching
selecting a VR system, not only VR hardware such as
purpose.
I/O devices, but also the VR software, i.e.
• User interface: There are obviously differences in development tools, have to be considered. VR
the performance of VR toolkits between their software serves as a toolkit that provides a
demonstration and the practical applicability development environment for VR hardware to support
because of the poor capability of integration with VR applications. The VR software may be run on
other CAD, CAM systems. It takes a long period different operation systems, and may support different
to construct a user-based application because the VR hardware. The architectures of VR software range
inefficient interface for data input and limited from platform independent languages implemented on
modelling method. low cost desktop workstation to high end systems
• Standardization and simplification: The interface customized for the high cost computation required for
of VR device input/output is a major problem immersive VEs. There is no modeling function
available in most of VR software toolkits. An interface architecture of the system is shown in Figure 1. Based
is needed to link modeling tools, such as CAD on the system presented in Figure 1, users can retrieve
systems. The common CAD formats include DXF, data associated with a manufacturing system,
IGES, 3DS, VRML and STL depending on CAD including the product modelling, machine layout,
systems used. It is not always compatible even that manufacturing processing, assembly simulation and
some toolkits provide the import/export of these other processing in a manufacturing system. As shown
formats. The feature, color, or location of a model may in Figure 1, data exchange and communication in a
be lost when formatted data are imported into VR manufacturing system are required for product review,
software to create VEs. We have tested a few models VE model generation, product model storage, and
using different export and import formats into VR connection with Intranet network.
systems, such as from AutoCAD (DXF) to Eon, from The product review communicates users’ request to
3D max (3DS) to Eon, from 3D max (VRML) to Eon product database. Product model base provides the VE
and from Pro/E (STL) to Eon. It is hard to say which model generation with information required to
one can generate a prefect result. Some repairs may construct the product model for review. It also
need after the model is transferred to VEs, but the interacts with the VE to ensure that the geometric
repair may not be always possible. model representation is consistent with the product
Therefore, the user interface is one of the most definition. A two-way data exchange between the
important issues in the VR application. The standard product review and product database is required to
data exchange formats of CAD and VR systems have communicate changes. The adaptive nature of the
to be introduced in the lecture and to be practised in product review requires the data exchange with the
the course project for the students. In order to product review to obtain information and to determine
understand the need of data and information exchange modifications of the product model. Since the VE
in a VR system, a VE is used to introduce the data model generation needs detailed geometric
required in a manufacturing system. The VE is used as information, this information is obtained from CAD
an interface between the system and users for data. The product review is responsible for providing
decision-making. Data exchange between the information for the construction of VE. Details of
manufacturing system and users is required during Figure 1 are described as follows.
product review and production evaluation. The
VE model generation
Product
Product review tools • Convert CAD data Database
• Produce objects and
• Construct scene framework from scripts for user
product model interaction Product
• Read 3D model using scene graph • Construct VE models Models
• Active texture, view manipulation • Review results and
• Topological and constraint relations feedback
between entities
• Produce 3D visualization Intranet
Process
Product
planners
… Manufacturing Inventory
Design Workshops