Small Grants for Exploratory Research: Virtual Design Laboratory

虚拟设计实验室（Virtual Design Laboratory， VDL）是一种利用虚拟现实技术快速、自然地设计和组装机电一体化系统原型的系统。对于这项研究，虚拟现实可以被认为是计算机生成的真实体验的模拟，它使计算机用户沉浸在计算机可以建模的任何位置系统中。与现有的设计方法相比，研究VDL系统具有三个优点：(1)在设计过程中节省了设计者大量的时间；(2) VDL允许设计师以更自然和更少的数学方式进行设计，而不会贬低数学对良好设计工作的重要性；(3) VDL让设计师可以用各种各样的零件进行实验，实际上，可能会对每一个可能的零件选项进行实验。为了使用VDL系统开发一台新机器，设计师戴上了头盔和两个动力手套。这款头盔有一个电脑生成的虚拟现实显示器，安装在一种面罩上，在设计师眼前产生虚拟现实环境。手套内装有传感器，设计师可以在虚拟现实环境中“感觉”和操纵各种机器部件。设计人员在VDL中安装由零件制造商开发的虚拟现实软件作为零件目录。在由此产生的虚拟现实展示中，设计师可以看到计算机生成的各种货架，每个货架只包含一种类型的机器零件。设计师操纵主手套，让VDL中计算机生成的从手套从架子上选择几个部件，在特定的机器设计中进行尝试，也在VDL中构建机器。这些部分并不是实际存在的。它们存在于VDL中，它们的所有工程属性都在虚拟现实环境中进行了数学建模，以复制实际部件的行为。本研究项目的目的是通过设计、建造和控制一个简单的实验设计工作站来确定VDL操作的基本规则。从这项初步研究中获得的知识将作为下一代设计工作站的设计和建设的基础。

This research is concurrent in the development of a Virtual Design Laboratory (VDL): a system which uses virtual reality technology to design and assemble prototypes of mechatronic systems rapidly and naturally. For this research, virtual reality can be thought of as the computer-generated simulation of real experience which immerses the computer user in any system of location which the computer can model. The research VDL system offers three advantages over current approaches to design: (1) the VDL saves the designer a great deal of time in the design process; (2) the VDL allows the designer to design in a more natural and less mathematical way without discounting the importance of mathematics to good design work; and (3) the VDL lets the designer experiment with a very wide variety of parts, and, in fact, potentially experiment with every possible part option. To develop a new machine using the VDL system, the designer wears a helmet and two powered master gloves. The helmet has a computer-generated virtual reality display mounted in a type of faceshield to produce the virtual reality environment in front of the designer's eyes. The gloves have sensors in them to let the designer "feel" and manipulate various machine parts in the virtual reality environment. The designer installs in the VDL the virtual reality software developed as a catalog of parts by parts manufacturers. In the resulting virtual reality display, the designer can see various computer-generated shelves, each shelf containing only one type of machine parts. The designer manipulates the master gloves to have the computer-generated slave gloves within the VDL choose from the shelves several parts to try in the particular machine design and also to build the machine, both within the VDL. These parts are not physically present. They exist in the VDL with all of their engineering properties having been modeled mathematically in the virtual reality environment to replicate the behavior of the actual part. The objective of this research project is to determine the ground rules for the operations of the VDL through the design, construction, and control of a simple experimental design workstation. The knowledge obtained from this preliminary research will serve as a basis for the design and construction of the next- generation design workstations.