Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
There are several multimodal systems that simulate assembly and disassembly tasks, although
most of them are designed to analize and evaluate the assembly planning during the design
process of new machines and only few of them provide additional training modules. Below
there is a description of some of these systems:
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VEDA: Virtual Enviromnent for Design for Assembly (Gupta et al. (1997))
It is a desktop virtual environment in which the designers see a visual 2-D virtual
representation of the objects and they are able to pick and place active objects, move them
around, and feel the forces through haptic interface devices with force feedback. They also
hear collision sounds when objects hit each other. The virtual models are 2-D in order to
preserve interactive update rates. The simulation duplicated as well as possible the weight,
shape, size, and frictional characteristics of the physical task. The system simulates simple
tasks, such as peg-in-hole task.
•
VADE: A Virtual Assembly Design Environment (Jayaram et al. (1999))
VADE was designed and implemented at the Washington State University. It is a VR-based
engineering application that allows engineers to plan, evaluate, and verify the assembly of
mechanical systems. Once the mechanical system is designed using a CAD system (such as
Pro/Engineer), the system automatically exports the necessary data to VADE. The various
parts and tools (screw driver, wrench, and so on) involved in the assembly process are
presented to users in a VE. Users perform the assembly using their hands and the virtual
assembly tools. VADE supports both one-handed and two-handed assembly. The virtual
hand is based on an instrumented glove device, such as the CyberGlove, and a graphical
model of a hand. VADE also provides audio feedback to assist novice users. The system lets
users make decisions, make design changes, and perform a host of other engineering tasks.
During this process, VADE maintains a link with the CAD system. At the end of the VADE
session, users have generated design information that automatically becomes available in the
CAD system.
•
HIDRA: Haptic Integrated Dis/Reassembly Analysis. (McDermott & Bras (1999))
HIDRA is an application that integrates a haptic device into a disassembly/ assembly
simulation environment. Two PHANToM haptic interfaces provide the user with a virtual
index finger and thumb force feedback. The goal is to use HIDRA as a design tool, so designers
must be able to use it in parallel with other CAD packages they may use throughout the design
process. The V-clip library is used to perform collision detection between object inside the
virtual scene. The system simulates simple scenarios, for example a simple shaft with a ring.
•
MIVAS: A Multi-modal Immersive Virtual Assembly System (Wan et al. (2004))
MIVAS is a multi-modal immersive virtual assembly system developed at the State Key
Lab of CAD&CG, Zhejiang University. This system provides an intuitive and natural way
of assembly evaluation and planning using tracked devices for tracking both hands and
head motions, dataglove with force feedback for simulating the realistic operation of human
hand and providing force feedback, voice input for issuing commands, sound feedback
for prompts, fully immersive 4-sided CAVE as working space. CrystalEyes shutter glasses
and emitters are used to obtain stereoscopic view. Users can feel the size and shape of
digital CAD models using the CyberGrasp haptic device (by Immersion Corporation). Since
Haptic feedback was only provided in griping tasks, the application lacked in providing
force information when parts collided. The system can simulate complex scenarios such
