A Virtual Reality Environment for Spherical Mechanism Design

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9612062 Vance This award provides funding to develop a new and innovative approach to designing spatial mechanisms based on the use of virtual reality technology. A virtual environment, which can be entered using a variety of visual and interactive virtual reality devices, will be developed and used to design unique, novel spherical mechanisms. New analytical techniques of spherical mechanism design will be incorporated into the design software. In addition, this software will be used to perform an evaluation of the suitability of various virtual reality menu structures, interaction devices and display devices to the task of engineering product design. This development will be a testbed for the use of virtual reality in mechanical design. If successful, this research will result in a computer tool that will provide a three-dimensional design space where the designer can synthesize spherical mechanisms and obtain a sense of the form and function of the devices without having to build expensive physical prototypes after each design change. This would enable spatial mechanisms to be incorporated into many products, including manufacturing equipment and consumer products. The replacement of several planar mechanisms with one spherical mechanism would result in a design with fewer links, fewer driving motors, more reliability and lower cost. As a result of this research, new advances in the application of virtual reality technology to mechanical design and in the area of spherical mechanism design methodology are likely.