Intelligent Manufacturing € August € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 8

Virtual Training Simulator Links Up Manufacturers

A virtual design and manufacturing system that allows people located hundreds of miles apart to work and learn together has been developed by the Concurrent Engineering Center (CEC) of the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology (ORCMT) (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) and at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Y-12 Plant. The system allows interactive collaboration between the CEC, the DOE weapons design laboratories and the Technology 2020 Center - a not-for-profit information technology company located at Oak Ridge.

The system works by allowing users linked up on a computer network to see and interact with each other. The high resolution computer images are geometrically correct, three-dimensional and can be manipulated by moving a mouse. Anyone using the CEC network can move or modify the objects on the screen while everyone else can see what was done.

"The design team at the Naval Air Warfare Center and the manufacturing team at Y-12 will be able to interact using a computer model of the machine parts and simulation of the process to resolve problems without delays and cost of travel," explained Terry Domm, manager of computer-aided engineering at ORCMT. Domm said a possible use would be in a team meeting where team members are gathered in a conference room, and would view the image projected on a big screen. One person could make changes based on input from the others present.

Not only do the people in the room see the changes and make comments, but everyone on the network can see the changes that were made. Traditional videoconferencing visuals and sound are used to provide the interpersonal contact element to the team's effort.

Domm said this is a step beyond videoconferencing, in which the participants can only hold up a drawing to the camera for a visual aid. He said it is also unique for every participant to be able to manipulate the model, rather than for only one person to make changes while the others simply observe.

"Visualization is widely acknowledged to be an extremely effective way to communicate design intent," Domm said. "The ability to interact with a realistic representation of the object being considered over long distances is a major step in enabling virtual enterprises and concurrent engineering."

The second application of the interactive simulation system is training. According to Domm, this "flight simulator for machine tool operators" is similar to a collaborative review in that a 3-D model can be manipulated by any computer on the network.

In this application, however, the model is of a milling machine or other type of manufacturing equipment and its control panel. With the click of a mouse, the person learning the operations can realistically work with the machine's virtual control panel (which has realistic, high-fidelity representation of the real panel and all the control switches, knobs and joy sticks) and see the resulting motion on a virtual model of the machine.

"The Virtual Training Simulator is planned to be deployed in a distributed mode, allowing users to access it and train in their location without taking their machines out of production," Domm explained. "Instruction can be provided remotely."

One good aspect of using the simulator is that it can help save money when training machine operators. "Current methods for training machine tool operators are expensive and capital-intensive. The Virtual Training Simulator offers a cost-effective solution by applying interactive computer simulation and distance learning techniques," Domm said.

The CEC is working closely with ORCMT's Manufacturing Skills Campus to make sure the details of the machine models are correct. The simulator will be of value to community colleges providing machine tool training by allowing the colleges to provide the training without the costs of ownership and maintenance of actual hardware, Domm explained.

The CEC will continue to improve on the system. According to Domm, "Further development is progressing to add realism, including immersion using virtual reality, and to create computer-based training using Internet technologies."

Click here to return to Table of Contents for the Intelligent Manufacturing August issue.