A Knowledge-Integrated Virtual Reality Machining Laboratory for Innovative Undergraduate Education

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A common problem in teaching undergraduate manufacturing courses involving machining is the difficulty to arrange appropriate machining experiments for a number of possible reasons such as: limitations on laboratory facilities, insufficient support of technicians, large size of class, limited funds for running the costly experiments, and safety considerations. Lack of physical understanding about the machining undermines the learning effectiveness in this course. The goal of the proposed project is to develop a virtual reality (VR) machining laboratory integrated with computer graphics animation, process knowledge and predictive machining models. The specific objectives are to help students in obtaining important hands-on" machining experience, enhance their physical understanding of machining principles, and promote their latent learning capability to the maximal possible extent. In such a virtual environment, all the students have a ' one-to-one" opportunity to "physically" operate various kinds of machines (both conventional and CNC) on their own and observe and study the on-line simulated dynamic machining performance by choosing different process parameters. The significance of the proposed project is that it can be used as a national model for future machining laboratories with the advantages of significant cost-effectiveness, knowledge-integrated interactive learning environment, great flexibility for various machining operations and, C-based software for easy portability. The results should be very attractive to other colleges for setting up a similar system and should have a significant impact on current teaching practices of manufacturing courses. The effectiveness of the VR system at different development stages will be evaluated through four consecutive teaching semesters of the course ME322 Manufacturing Processes (offered every semester). As a national model for future machining laboratories, the results of the proposed project will be publicize d through conferences, publications and the World Wide Web.