Using Virtual Reality technologies for manufacturing applications

Abstract

This paper describes several methods for using the Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) as the visualisation integration technology for manufacturing simulation systems. One of our goals was to develop an integration methodology based on the Web-Based Manufacturing translators to produce reusable VRML assembly components and Simulation. Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated environment that gives the illusion of being immersed in a real system. VR can be handled as improved animation operated by a simulation system. Simulation provides help in planning and analysis of physical systems, which are rather expensive or sophisticated to experiment with. Manufacturing basically comprises four basic classes of engineering tasks: product design, production design, implementation of production system, and operation of the actual production system. These tasks could benefit from the application of VR through the high-fidelity visualisations, providing model and situation representation in the 3D space, and the power of interactive handling of large data sets in real-time or near real-time. The underlying principles of VR via VRML are described and applications in design and manufacturing tasks are illustrated by Assembly Planning and Intelligent Robotic examples. The final, we propose Robotic-Simulator software design and a framework for the Web-Based Manufacturing Simulation.