Quality assurance and process control in virtual reality

Abstract

In this study, quality assurance and automatic process control are combined with a Virtual Reality enabled man-in-the-loop system. Increasingly flexible manufacturing demands increasingly flexible process control. Autonomous smart manufacturing systems increase the amount of tolerable variation in manufacturing processes by reacting to minor changes in part positioning, preparation, and other issues by adaptive process parameters. Due to unforeseen circumstances or high variation, there may be workpieces requiring human interaction to continue manufacturing, repair, or be sent to recycling or even waste. Human-robot collaboration may be achieved by safety systems allowing the human operator within the working area of a robot, or then augmented or virtual reality may allow a human operator to assess the situation remotely. The AR and VR technologies may include information usually invisible to the operator. In this study, a 3D workpiece is measured, and defects are visualized in a VR environment, focusing on the geometrical distortion of the workpiece. Measurement had a standard deviation of +/- 0.067 mm for the root gap. Visualization facilitates rapid human feedback in case distortion is getting out of bounds. A man-in-the-loop system is used to provide adjustments to the robot parameters.