Using Virtual Demonstrations for Creating Multi-Media Training Instructions

Abstract

Often generating training instructions for virtual environments is a long and tedious process. In this paper, we discuss the development of a virtual environment (VE) instruction generating tool called Virtual Author which is the main component of the Virtual Training Studio (VTS). VTS is a virtual environment-based training system that provides instructors with a tool to create training instructions and allows trainees to learn assembly operations in a personal virtual environment. The Virtual Author tool is designed to allow an instructor to perform virtual demonstrations using CAD models in the virtual environment in order to quickly generate VE-based training instructions for use in VTS. This paper describes the algorithms used to carry out motion smoothening of instructor's actions, automated text instruction generation based on part and assembly motions, and extraction of alignment constraints from 3D CAD models to support instruction generation. We also present examples to illustrate how the use of the Virtual Author tool leads to a significant reduction in the training instruction generation time.

The 3D Product Model Research Evolution and Future Trends: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Research emerged on computer-aided assembly planning systems, with applications ranging from electromechanical components to pumps, torque converters, golfcarts, and aircraft [30,82,163,183,192]. As research on design for assembly grew, so did the use of the 3D product models for virtual assembly training and the development of virtual work instructions [187,226]. On the research front of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing of 3D product models, the literature moved beyond applying probabilities to tolerance stack-up to determining the optimal configuration of variant part assemblies, in addition to the tradeoffs between improved tolerances and associated costs that were reviewed in the 3D product model development stage [124,156].…”

“… [52,63,64,68,131,132,148,160,161,191,205,241,266,269] 12Virtual Training/Work Instructions[26,49,51,112,127,141,174,177,178,187,189,226,281]…”