Engineering Research Equipment: Virtual Reality to Support Product Design, Virtual Prototyping and Virtual Disassembly

该奖项是为了收购和开发威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校I-CARVE实验室的虚拟现实工作室。这个虚拟现实设置由一个硅图形缟玛瑙计算机与现实引擎II图形处理器。在这台电脑上附有一个电子手套，用于跟踪手的位置。这台电脑还附带了一个由Visual Research开发的头戴式显示设备，支持三维可视化。头戴式设备携带一个6自由度的头部跟踪器，用于确定头部在空间中的位置。硬件由软件支持，软件由多个虚拟现实设备接口、图形模块和实体建模软件程序组成。该补助金还支持一名兼职学生维护虚拟现实工作室。该设备将用于三个创新工程设计应用领域的研究：(1)产品设计的虚拟现实，(2)虚拟原型，(3)虚拟去制造。设计的虚拟现实研究解决了在虚拟现实设置中执行概念形状设计的根本新方法。它集成了人的声音命令控制和人的手控制作为输入机制。虚拟样机研究涉及开发表征框架，用于定义和提取近净形状制造产品的信息，从而确定这些零件在虚拟环境中的可原型性。通过本研究，可以在虚拟环境中解决生产和工装问题。虚拟去制造允许创新的方法来评估产品设计的拆卸和回收-所有在虚拟环境中。

9622665 Gadh This award is for the acquisition and development of a Virtual Reality Studio at the I-CARVE Lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This Virtual Reality set-up consists of a Silicon Graphics Onyx Computer with a Reality Engine II graphics processor. To this computer attaches a Cyber Glove for tracking the hand position. Also attached to this computer is a head-mount display device by Visual Research that supports three dimensional visualization. The head-mount device carries a 6 degree of freedom head tracker that determines head position in space. The hardware is supported by software that consists of a number of virtual reality device interfaces, graphics modules and solid modeling software programs. The grant also supports a part-time student for maintaining the Virtual Reality Studio. This equipment will be used for research in three innovative engineering design application areas: (1) virtual reality for product design, (2) virtual prototyping, (3) virtual de-manufacturing. The virtual-reality-for-design research addresses a fundamentally new method for performing concept-shape design in a virtual reality set-up. This integrates human voice command control and human hand control as input mechanisms. The virtual prototyping research involves developing representational frameworks for defining and extracting information from near-net shape manufactured products so as to determine the prototypability of such parts in a virtual environment. Using this research, questions of production and tooling can be addressed in the virtual environment. Virtual de-manufacturing allows innovative methods for evaluating product designs for disassembly and recycling--all in the virtual environment.