A system for rapid creation and assessment of conceptual large vehicle designs using immersive virtual reality

Abstract

Currently, new product concepts are often evaluated by developing detailed virtual part and assembly models with traditional computer aided design (CAD) tools followed by appropriate analyses (e.g., finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, etc.). The creation of these models and analyses are tremendously time consuming. If a number of different conceptual configurations have been determined, it may not be possible to model and analyze each of them due to the complexity of these evaluation processes. Thus, promising concepts might be eliminated based solely on insufficient time and resources for assessment. In addition, the virtual models and analyses performed are usually of much higher detail and accuracy than what is needed for such early assessment. By eliminating the time-consuming complexity of a CAD environment and incorporating qualitative assessment tools, engineers could spend more time evaluating concepts that may have been previously abandoned due to time constraints. To address these issues, the Advanced Systems Design Suite (ASDS), was created. The ASDS incorporates a PC user interface with an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment to ease the creation and assessment of conceptual design prototypes individually or collaboratively in an immersive VR environment. Assessment tools incorporate metamodeling approximations and immersive visualization to evaluate the feasibility of each concept. In this paper, the ASDS system and interface along with specifically designed immersive VR assessment tools such as state saving and dynamic viewpoint creation are presented for conceptual large vehicle design. A test case example of redesigning an airplane is presented to explore the feasibility of the proposed system.

Using virtual reality and 3D industrial numerical models for immersive interactive checklists

“…Raposo et al [33] integrate VR and CAD in engineering (maintenance) projects for large complex petroleum engineering projects. Further works propose approaches for coupling VR and PLM systems by reducing the authoring burden, like Noon et al [30] (rapid design and assessment of large vehicles) or Makris et al [23] (involving semantic-based taxonomy for immersive product design). -Simulation: Dangelmaier et al [7] use VR and augmented reality techniques for manufacturing processes, and propose a generic solution for user interface and data structure, and Lee et al [20] involve augmented reality for workshop design and update simulations.…”

An Application of Conceptual Design and Multidisciplinary Analysis Transitioning to Detailed Design Stages

“…In large vehicle design, it is more difficult to identify and fix design problems later in the design cycle due to the complexity of the overall system and sub-systems 7 . Modular product architecture helps a designer focus on the system and sub-system functional elements.…”

“…The Advanced Systems Design Suite (ASDS) framework was developed precisely to cater for conceptual design 7,9,10 . It was developed to quickly generate new concepts and effectively eliminate infeasibile solutions by visualizing component to component interaction as well as the whole system 11 .…”

A Virtual Reality System for Training Operators

“…Several applications of interactive visual simulation are currently in their production stages, and these include vehicle simulation, entertainment, vehicle design, architecture design and spatial arrangement, medical training, and psychological treatments [4,5,6]. Depending upon the applications, the interactive visual simulators provide different degrees of fidelity for the simulated scenarios.…”