The application of virtual prototyping in the development of complex aerospace products

Abstract

Highlights that the application of virtual prototyping to the development of complex aerospace products has brought about a revolution in the way that such products are introduced into production. Deals with implications of the introduction of virtual prototyping to a highly competitive high‐technology global industry. Points out that the benefits of this engineering innovation are not limited to the aerospace sector, however, and the lessons learned can be equally applied in other design and manufacturing activities. Describes the development and application of a comprehensive virtual prototyping initiative applied to the mechanical design and manufacture domain at British Aerospace Defence Dynamics, and the extent to which it has affected working practice. Introduces aspects of the existing research collaboration programme, and identifies potential areas for future research.

Beyond desktop point and click: Immersive walkthrough of aerospace structures

“…The 1997 virtual prototyping initiative at British Aerospace Defence Dynamics [Bennett 1997] was composed of a CAD/-CAM suite of tools, 3D simulators of coordinate measurement machine (CMM) inspection programs, assembly, verification, planning and ergonomics, and the final stage used stereolithography for rapid prototyping. There is no mention of immersive interfaces or input devices other than mouse and keyboard.…”

“…Virtual prototyping is defined as the utilization of 3D computer simulations to allow the exploration of engineering manufacturing, ergonomic performance, dynamics, and even human operation of a product prior to actual physical construction [Bennett 1997]. Education and training applications use 3D models of engineering structures such as houses, roads, or a space station or geographic survey data such as terrain and elevation data and incorporate these into interactive simulators.…”

Research on virtual human in ergonomic simulation

“…Recently, the development of product design impulses the research on relations between human, machine and environment. It brings ergonomics to a practicable stage, especially in rehabilitation aids design (Beitler, Harwin, & Mahoney, 1996), aerospace product design (Bennett, 1996) and workplace task ergonomics analysis (Rajan, Kadiresan, & Jeffrey, 1999). With the development of supercomputing, computer graphics, virtual reality and high performance graphics system, the research on ergonomics is extended to virtual environment design platform that is based on 3D-graphics, interactive, physics-based model, and provides realtime simulation and evaluation (Arzi, 1997).…”

“…In virtual assembly (Rajan et al, 1999), pipeline design (de Sa & Zachmann, 1999), virtual training (Stuering & Schumann, 1999), verification of maintenance processes and others, it has been applied and incorporated in the framework of virtual prototype development. As a key step of product life cycle, it is very important for ergonomics simulation to shortcut test/development cycles, lower development costs, improved quality and enhance safety (Bennett, 1996;Weyrich & Drews, 1999 …”

Parameterization and Visualization of Marine Crane Concept Design

“…Over the last few decades, computer-aided modelling and simulation tools have proved to be very useful for design verifications, testing and analysis, exchanging data and information, product promotion and presentation, etc. Virtual Prototyping (VP) has been a hot research topic in many industries, in particular, the aerospace and aircraft, and automobile industries [2] [3]. Given a VP platform that can cope with the inputs and outputs from all the interested parties, the product development process would become more efficient and effective.…”