CAREER: Virtual Reality Techniques to Improve Product Design

Judy M. Vance
Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011-2160

NSF Design and Manufacturing Grantees Conference Proceedings, Long Beach, CA, January 5-8, 1999, CD/ROM paper number ED-48.

Abstract
This NSF Career Award was to fund research into (1) the use of virtual reality techniques to improve product design and (2) the implementation of active learning techniques in the engineering classroom.

Research:
The focus of this work is to develop and evaluate virtual reality (VR) applications in various areas of mechanical engineering in order to determine what benefits virtual reality techniques provide to engineers over existing computer aided tools. This year with support from Ford, Boeing, Deere, and Procter and Gamble the work had broadened to include not only conceptual design, but also engineering analysis and factory simulation.

Work on examining the use of VR for conceptual design has focused on designing spherical mechanisms in a virtual environment. Based on the results of a study performed last year comparing a VR application to a traditional workstation-based application [1], a new VR spherical mechanism design application was developed (Figure 1) [2]. This application allows the designer to design the mechanism around three-dimentioanl models of the area where the mechanism will be used. Pro/Engineer models can be brought directly into the virtual environment and the mechanism can be designed right on the models. This provides the designer with a more realistic and natural view of the design as it develops. Collision detection also is implemented to indicate where the mechanism would interfere with objects in the environment.

isis01