A Virtual Reality Environment for Synthesizing Spherical Four-Bar Mechanisms

Author(s):  
Scott W. Osborn ◽  
Judy M. Vance

Abstract This paper describes the development of a virtual reality environment which facilitates the design of spherical four-bar mechanisms. The virtual environment allows the user to naturally interact with the input data and specify the design parameters while operating in a three-dimensional environment. We see this development as a logical extension of existing graphics-based spatial design software. The need for a three-dimensional design space is driven by the difficulty in specifying design inputs and constraints for a spatial problem using a two-dimensional interface. In addition, once the mechanism has been created, the virtual environment provides the opportunity for the user to visually verify that the mechanism will perform the desired three-dimensional motion.

Author(s):  
D. Kontos ◽  
A. Georgopoulos

Abstract. In the context of this paper, a virtual reality application that allows each user to perform basic topographic processes on an already created 3D model inside a virtual environment was developed. Specifically, it is an application that allows the user to perform measurements of distances between two points in three-dimensional space and measurement and extraction of the three-dimensional coordinates of any point inside the virtual reality environment. Furthermore, the created application was evaluated in terms of its functionality, its usability and metric accuracy. Before the developing stage a research was done in order to determine which virtual reality system and which game engine is most suitable to use and finally the HTC Vive® virtual reality system and the Unreal Engine 4 game engine were used. Before all that, the concept of the virtual reality science was defined and also the virtual reality technologies in today's world were analyzed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian F. Riebl ◽  
Christian Wakelam ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

Abstract Turbine Vane Frames (TVF) are a way to realize more compact jet engine designs. Located between the high pressure turbine (HPT) and the low pressure turbine (LPT), they fulfill structural and aerodynamic tasks. When used as an integrated concept with splitters located between the structural load-bearing vanes, the TVF configuration contains more than one type of airfoil with sometimes pronouncedly different properties. This system of multidisciplinary demands and mixed blading poses an interesting opportunity for optimization. Within the scope of the present work, a full geometric parameterization of a TVF with splitters is presented. The parameterization is chosen as to minimize the number of parameters required to automatically and flexibly represent all blade types involved in a TVF row in all three dimensions. Typical blade design parameters are linked to the fourth order Bézier-curve controlled camber line-thickness parameterization. Based on conventional design rules, a procedure is presented, which sets the parameters within their permissible ranges according to the imposed constraints, using a proprietary developed code. The presented workflow relies on subsequent three dimensional geometry generation by transfer of the proposed parameter set to a commercially available CAD package. The interdependencies of parameters are discussed and their respective significance for the adjustment process is detailed. Furthermore, the capability of the chosen parameterization and adjustment process to rebuild an exemplary reference TVF geometry is demonstrated. The results are verified by comparing not only geometrical profile data, but also validated CFD simulation results between the rebuilt and original geometries. Measures taken to ensure the robustness of the method are highlighted and evaluated by exploring extremes in the permissible design space. Finally, the embedding of the proposed method within the framework of an automated, gradient free numerical optimization is discussed. Herein, implications of the proposed method on response surface modeling in combination with the optimization method are highlighted. The method promises to be an option for improvement of optimization efficiency in gradient free optimization of interdependent blade geometries, by a-priori excluding unsuitable blade combinations, yet keeping restrictions to the design space as limited as possible.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 168781401878363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nien-Tsu Hu ◽  
Pu-Sheng Tsai ◽  
Ter-Feng Wu ◽  
Jen-Yang Chen ◽  
Lin Lee

This article explores the construction of a geometric virtual reality platform for the environmental navigation. Non-panoramic photos and wearable electronics with Bluetooth wireless transmission functions are used to combine the user’s actions with the virtual reality environment in a first-person virtual reality platform. The 3ds Max animation software is used to create three-dimensional models of real buildings. These models are combined with the landscape models in Unity3d to create a virtual campus scene that matches real landscape. The wearable device included an ATMega168 chip as a microcontroller; it was connected to a three-axis accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a Bluetooth transmitter to detect and transmit various movements of the user. Although the development of the mechatronics, software, and engineering involved in the three-dimensional animation are the main objective, we believe that the methods and techniques can be modified for various purposes. After the system architecture was created and the operations of the platform were verified, wearable devices and virtual reality scenes are concluded to be able to be used together seamlessly.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre C. Silva ◽  
Alexandre Cardoso ◽  
Edgard A. Lamounier Jr ◽  
Camilo L. Barreto Jr ◽  
Diogo M. Azevedo ◽  
...  

This project shows the results obtained from a new strategy based on Virtual Reality techniques, which intends to minimize the issues caused on the operation of electric power substations due to the lack of spatial and functional information on the traditional operation interfaces. For this purpose, a three-dimensional interactive virtual reality environment was built in a realistic and accurate way regarding a energy electric company of Minas Gerais – Brazil (CEMIG) substation and afterwards implanted it in its operation center for tasks related to its functioning. Lastly, tests were applied to the operators to obtain results aiming at the contextualized problems.


Author(s):  
Todd J. Furlong ◽  
Judy M. Vance ◽  
Pierre M. Larochelle

Abstract This paper presents a new approach to using virtual reality (VR) to design spherical mechanisms. VR provides a three dimensional design space where a designer can input design positions using a combination of hand gestures and motions and view the resultant mechanism in stereo using natural head movement to change the viewpoint. Because of the three dimensional nature of the design and verification of spherical mechanisms, VR is examined as a new design interface in this research. In addition to providing a VR environment for design, the research presented in this paper has focused on developing a “design in context” approach to spherical mechanism design. Previous design methods have involved placing coordinate frames along the surface of a constraint sphere. The new “design in context” approach allows a designer to freely place geometric models of movable objects inside an environment consisting of fixed objects. The fixed objects could either act as a base for a mechanism or be potential sources of interference with the motion of the mechanism. This approach allows a designer to perform kinematic synthesis of a mechanism while giving consideration to the interaction of that mechanism with its application environment.


Author(s):  
Tushar H. Dani ◽  
Rajit Gadh

Abstract Despite advances in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and the evolution of the graphical user interfaces, rapid creation, editing and visualization of three-dimensional (3D) shapes remains a tedious task. Though the availability of Virtual Reality (VR)-based systems allows enhanced three-dimensional interaction and visualization, the use of VR for ab initio shape design, as opposed to ‘importing’ models from existing CAD systems, is a relatively new area of research. Of interest are computer-human interaction issues and the design and geometric tools for shape modeling in a Virtual Environment (VE). The focus of this paper is on the latter i.e. in defining the geometric tools required for a VR-CAD system and in describing a framework that meets those requirements. This framework, the Virtual Design Software Framework (VDSF) consists of the interaction and design tools, and an underlying geometric engine that provides the representation and algorithms required by these tools. The geometric engine called the Virtual Modeler uses a graph-based representation (Shape-Graph) for modeling the shapes created by the user. The Shape-Graph facilitates interactive editing by localizing the effect of editing operations and in addition provides constraint-based design and editing mechanisms that are useful in a 3D interactive virtual environment. The paper concludes with a description of the prototype system, called the Virtual Design Studio (VDS), that is currently being implemented.1.


2010 ◽  
pp. 180-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Steinicke ◽  
G. Bruder ◽  
J. Jerald ◽  
H. Frenz

In recent years virtual environments (VEs) have become more and more popular and widespread due to the requirements of numerous application areas in particular in the 3D city visualization domain. Virtual reality (VR) systems, which make use of tracking technologies and stereoscopic projections of three-dimensional synthetic worlds, support better exploration of complex datasets. However, due to the limited interaction space usually provided by the range of the tracking sensors, users can explore only a portion of the virtual environment (VE). Redirected walking allows users to walk through large-scale immersive virtual environments (IVEs) such as virtual city models, while physically remaining in a reasonably small workspace by intentionally injecting scene motion into the IVE. With redirected walking users are guided on physical paths that may differ from the paths they perceive in the virtual world. The authors have conducted experiments in order to quantify how much humans can unknowingly be redirected. In this chapter they present the results of this study and the implications for virtual locomotion user interfaces that allow users to view arbitrary real world locations, before the users actually travel there in a natural environment.


1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trina M. Roy ◽  
Carolina Cruz-Neira ◽  
Thomas A. DeFanti

Developing graphic interfaces to steer high-performance scientific computations has been a research subject in recent years. Now, computational scientists are starting to use virtual reality environments to explore the results of their simulations. In most cases, the virtual reality environment acts on precomputed data; however, the use of virtual reality environments for the dynamic steering of distributed scientific simulations is a growing area of research. We present in this paper the initial design and implementation of a distributed system that uses our virtual reality environment, the CAVE, to control and steer scientific simulations being computed on remote supercomputers. We discuss some of the more relevant features of virtual reality interfaces, emphasizing those of the CAVE, describe the distributed system developed, and present a scientific application, the Cosmic Worm, that makes extensive use of the distributed system.


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