A Virtual Reality Environment for Spherical Mechanism Design

该奖项为开发一种基于虚拟现实技术的设计空间机制的创新方法提供资金。将开发一个可以使用各种视觉和交互式虚拟现实设备进入的虚拟环境，并用于设计独特的、新颖的球形机构。球面机构设计的新分析技术将被纳入设计软件。此外，该软件还将用于评估各种虚拟现实菜单结构、交互设备和显示设备对工程产品设计任务的适用性。这一发展将成为在机械设计中使用虚拟现实的试验台。如果成功，这项研究将产生一种计算机工具，该工具将提供一个三维设计空间，设计师可以在其中综合球形机构并获得设备的形式和功能感，而无需在每次设计更改后构建昂贵的物理原型。这将使空间机制能够被纳入许多产品，包括制造设备和消费产品。用一个球面机构代替几个平面机构，可以减少连杆和驱动电机的数量，提高可靠性和降低成本。研究结果表明，虚拟现实技术在机械设计和球面机构设计方法论领域的应用有望取得新的进展。

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.