Virtual Assembly (VA) is one of the key technologies
in advanced manufacturing field. It is a promising application of
virtual reality in design and manufacturing field. It has drawn much
interest from industries and research institutes in the last two decades.
This paper describes a process for integrating an interactive Virtual
Reality-based assembly simulation of a digital mockup with the
CAD/CAM infrastructure. The necessary hardware and software
preconditions for the process are explained so that it can easily be
adopted by non VR experts. The article outlines how assembly
simulation can improve the CAD/CAM procedures and structures;
how CAD model preparations have to be carried out and which
virtual environment requirements have to be fulfilled. The issue of
data transfer is also explained in the paper. The other challenges and
requirements like anti-aliasing and collision detection have also been
explained. Finally, a VA simulation has been carried out for a ball
valve assembly and a car door assembly with the help of Vizard
virtual reality toolkit in a semi-immersive environment and their
performance analysis has been done on different workstations to
evaluate the importance of graphical processing unit (GPU) in the
field of VA.
[1] Liu X., Yang L. & Ren J. ÔÇÿStudy on Chip Forming and Breaking Process
Based on Virtual Reality-. Proc. ICALIP 2008, pp. 1738-1742.
[2] Jayaram S., Connacher H. I. & Lyons K. W. ÔÇÿVirtual Assembly Using
Virtual Reality Techniques-. Computer-Aided Design, 29 (8) (1997), pp.
575-584.
[3] Gaoliang P., Gondong W., Wenjian L. & Haiquan Y. ÔÇÿA desktop virtual
reality-based interactive modular fixture configuration design system-.
Computer-Aided Design, 42 (2010), pp. 432-444.
[4] Jayaram S., Wang Y, Jayaram U., Lyons K.W. & Hart P. ÔÇÿVADE: A
virtual assembly design environment-. IEEE Computer Graphics and
Applications, 19(6) (1999), pp. 44-50.
[5] Wang Q.H. & Li J.R. ÔÇÿInteractive visualization of complex dynamic
virtual environments for industrial assemblies. Computers in Industry,
57 (2006) pp. 366-377.
[6] Jayaram S., Jayaram U., Kim Y.J., DeChenne C., Lyons K.W., Palmer
C. & Mitsui T. ÔÇÿIndustry case studies in the use of immersive virtual
assembly-. Virtual Reality, 11 (2007), pp. 217-228.
[7] Banerjee A. and Banerjee P. ÔÇÿA behavioral scene graph for rule
enforcement in interactive virtual assembly sequence planning-.
Computers in Industry, 42 (2000), pp. 147-157.
[8] Liu G.H., Yao Y.X. & Zhang H.Z. ÔÇÿDevelopment of a New Virtual
Environment System for Assembly-. Key Engineering Materials, 315-
316 (2006), pp. 556-560.
[9] Song I.H. & Chung S.C. ÔÇÿSynthesis of the digital mock-up system for
heterogeneous CAD assembly-. Computers in Industry, 60 (2009), pp.
285-295.
[10] Sun H. & Hujun B. ÔÇÿTwo-handed assembly with immersive task
planning in virtual reality-. Virtual Reality, 6(1) (2002), pp. 11-20.
[11] Jimeno A. & Puerta A. ÔÇÿState of the art of the virtual reality applied to
design and manufacturing processes-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 33
(2007), pp. 866-874.
[12] Lin Y.J. & Farahati R. ÔÇÿCAD-Based Virtual Assembly Prototyping - A
Case Study-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 21 (2003), pp. 263-274.
[13] Seth A., Su H. & Vance J. ÔÇÿA desktop networked haptic VR interface for
mechanical assembly-. Proc. of IMECE -05, (2005), ASME, Orlando,
FL.
[14] Jayaram S., Joshi H., Jayaram U., Kim Y., Kate H. & Varoz L.
ÔÇÿEmbedding haptics-enabled virtual tool in CAD for training
applications-. Proc. of IDETC/CIE (2006), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[15] Adam S.C., Scott D.M. & Bert B. ÔÇÿA haptic assembly and disassembly
simulation environment and associated computational load optimization
techniques-. J Comput Inf Sci Eng, 1(2) (2001), pp. 113-122.
[16] Wan H., Shuming G. & Qunsheng P. ÔÇÿVirtual grasping for virtual
assembly tasks-. Proc. of third international conference on Image &
Graphics, ICIG -04, (2004).
[17] Seth A., Su H. & Vance J. ÔÇÿSHARP: A system for haptic assembly and
realistic prototyping-. Proc. of DETC -06, ASME, IDETC/CIE (2006),
Philadelphia, PA.
[18] Choi A.C.K., Chan D.S.K. & Yuen M.F. ÔÇÿApplications of virtual
assembly tools for improving product design-. Int J Adv Manuf Tecnol,
19(5) (2002), pp. 377-383.
[19] Sayers H. ÔÇÿDesktop virtual environments: A study of navigation and
age-. Interacting with Computers, 16(5) (2004), pp. 939-956.
[20] Gupta R., Whiney D. & Zeltzer D. ÔÇÿPrototyping and design for assembly
analysis using multimodal virtual environments-. Computer-Aided
Design, 29 (1997), pp. 585-597.
[21] Li J.R., Khoo L.P. & Tor S.B. ÔÇÿDesktop virtual reality for maintenance
training: An object oriented prototype system (V-REALISM)-.
Computers in Industry, 52(2) (2003), pp. 109-125.
[22] Pere E., Langrana N., Gomez D. & Burdea G. ÔÇÿVirtual mechanical
assembly on a PC-based system-. Proc. of ASME design engineering
technical conferences and computers and information in engineering
conference, DETC -96 (1996), Irvine, CA.
[23] Brough J.E., Schwartz M., Gupta S.K., Anand D.K., Kavetsky R. &
Petterson R. ÔÇÿTowards the development of the virtual environment-based
training system for mechanical assembly operations-. Virtual Reality,
11(4) (2007), pp. 189-206.
[24] Wan H., Gao S., Peng Q., Dai G. & Zhang H. ÔÇÿMIVAS: A multi-modal
immersive virtual assembly system-. Proc. of ASME design engineering
technical conferences and computers and information in engineering
conference, DETC -04, (2004), Salt Lake City, UT.
[25] Xia P.J., Lopes A.M., Restivo M.T. & Yao Y.X. ÔÇÿA new type hapticsbased
virtual environment system for assembly training of complex
products-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, (2011), DOI: 10.1007/s00170-011-
3381-8.
[26] Yao Y.X., Xia P.J., Liu J.S. & Li J.G. ÔÇÿA pragmatic system to support
interactive assembly planning and training in an immersive virtual
environment (I-VAPTS)-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol , 30(9-10) (2006),
pp. 959-967.
[27] McNeely W.A., Puterbaugh K.D. & Troy J.J. ÔÇÿSix degree-of-freedom
haptic rendering using voxel sampling-. Proc. of SIGGRAPH -99,
annual conference series, (1999), Los Angeles, CA.
[28] Gottschalk S., Lin M.C. & Manocha D. ÔÇÿOBB Tree: A hierarchal
structure for rapid interference detection-. Proc. of ACM
SIGGRAPH-96, (1996), pp. 171-180.
[29] Su C.J., Lin F. & Ye L. (1999). ÔÇÿA new collision detection method for
CSG-represented objects in virtual manufacturing-. Computers in
Industry, 40 (1999), pp. 1-13.
[30] CyberGlove. (2009). http://www.cyberglovesystems.com/products/cyber
grasp/overview.
[31] Wang Q.H., Li J.R. & Gong H.Q. ÔÇÿA CAD-linked virtual assembly
environment-. Int J Prod Res, 44(3) (2006), pp. 467-486.
[32] Jezernik A. & Hren G. ÔÇÿA solution to integrate computer-aided design
(CAD) and virtual reality (VR) databases in design and manufacturing
processes-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 22 (2003), pp. 768-774.
[33] Worldviz Vizard. (2010). http://www.worldviz.com/products/vizard/feat
ures.html
[34] Python. (2010). http://www.python.org/doc/essays/comparisions.html
[35] Vizard Toolkit Hardware. (2010). http://www.worldviz.com/products/pe
ripherals/index.html
[36] Taylor II R.M., Hudson T.C., Seeger A., Weber H., Juliano J. & Helser
A.T. ÔÇÿVRPN: A device-independent, network-transparent VR peripheral
system-. Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality
software and technology (2001), NY, USA.
[37] Wang Q., Green M. & Shaw C. ÔÇÿEM-an environment manager for
building networked virtual environments-. Proceedings of the Virtual
Reality Annual International Symposium -95, Washington DC, USA.
[38] DIVE. (2009). http://www.sics.se/dive/manual/dive_file_format/dive_fil
e_format.html
[39] Calvin J., Dickens A., Metzger P., Miller D. & Owen D. ÔÇÿThe SIMNET
virtual world architecture-. Proc. of IEEE Virtual Reality Annual
International Symposium -93, (1993), Seattle, WA, USA.
[40] Pulkkinen P. ÔÇÿOpenGL and RenderMan Rendering Architectures-.
Seminar on Computer Graphics, HUT, Telecommunications Software
and Multimedia Laboratory (2002).
[41] Jiang-sheng L., Ying-xue Y., Pahlovy S.A. & Jian-guang L. ÔÇÿA novel
data decomposition and information translation method from CAD
system to virtual assembly application-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 28
(2006), pp. 395-402.
[42] Hearn D., Baker M.P. & Carithers W. ÔÇÿComputer Graphics with
OpenGL, 4th ed-. ISBN-10: 0136053580, (2010), Prentice Hall.
[43] Ren L., Pfister H. & Zwicker M. ÔÇÿObject Space EWA Surface Splatting:
A Hardware Accelerated Approach to High Quality Point Rendering-.
Computer Graphics Forum, 21 (2002), pp. 461-470.
[44] Grossman J.P. & Dally W.J. ÔÇÿPoint Sample Rendering-. Proc. of
Rendering Techniques -98, (1998).
[45] Wu X. ÔÇÿAn efficient antialiasing technique-. ACM SIGGRAPH
Computer Graphics, 25(4) (1991), pp. 143-152.
[46] Redon S., Kheddar A. & Conquillart S. ÔÇÿFast Continuous Collision
Detection between Rigid Bodies-. Proc. of Eurographics -02, vol. 21 (3)
(2002).
[47] Held M., Klosowski J.T. & Mitchell J.S.B. ÔÇÿEvaluation of Collision
Detection Methods for Virtual Reality Fly-Throughs-. Proc. of Canadian
Conference on Computational Geometry, (1995), pp.205-210.
[48] Zachmann G. ÔÇÿReal-Time And Exact Collision Detection For Interactive
Virtual Prototyping-. Proc. of the 1997 ASME Design Engineering
Technical Conferences, (1997), pp. 14-17.
[49] Su C.J., Fu-Hua L. & Zhang X. ÔÇÿAn efficient collision detection
methodology for virtual assembly-. Proc. of IEEE conference on
Systems, Man and Cybernetics, (1998), pp. 360-365.
[1] Liu X., Yang L. & Ren J. ÔÇÿStudy on Chip Forming and Breaking Process
Based on Virtual Reality-. Proc. ICALIP 2008, pp. 1738-1742.
[2] Jayaram S., Connacher H. I. & Lyons K. W. ÔÇÿVirtual Assembly Using
Virtual Reality Techniques-. Computer-Aided Design, 29 (8) (1997), pp.
575-584.
[3] Gaoliang P., Gondong W., Wenjian L. & Haiquan Y. ÔÇÿA desktop virtual
reality-based interactive modular fixture configuration design system-.
Computer-Aided Design, 42 (2010), pp. 432-444.
[4] Jayaram S., Wang Y, Jayaram U., Lyons K.W. & Hart P. ÔÇÿVADE: A
virtual assembly design environment-. IEEE Computer Graphics and
Applications, 19(6) (1999), pp. 44-50.
[5] Wang Q.H. & Li J.R. ÔÇÿInteractive visualization of complex dynamic
virtual environments for industrial assemblies. Computers in Industry,
57 (2006) pp. 366-377.
[6] Jayaram S., Jayaram U., Kim Y.J., DeChenne C., Lyons K.W., Palmer
C. & Mitsui T. ÔÇÿIndustry case studies in the use of immersive virtual
assembly-. Virtual Reality, 11 (2007), pp. 217-228.
[7] Banerjee A. and Banerjee P. ÔÇÿA behavioral scene graph for rule
enforcement in interactive virtual assembly sequence planning-.
Computers in Industry, 42 (2000), pp. 147-157.
[8] Liu G.H., Yao Y.X. & Zhang H.Z. ÔÇÿDevelopment of a New Virtual
Environment System for Assembly-. Key Engineering Materials, 315-
316 (2006), pp. 556-560.
[9] Song I.H. & Chung S.C. ÔÇÿSynthesis of the digital mock-up system for
heterogeneous CAD assembly-. Computers in Industry, 60 (2009), pp.
285-295.
[10] Sun H. & Hujun B. ÔÇÿTwo-handed assembly with immersive task
planning in virtual reality-. Virtual Reality, 6(1) (2002), pp. 11-20.
[11] Jimeno A. & Puerta A. ÔÇÿState of the art of the virtual reality applied to
design and manufacturing processes-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 33
(2007), pp. 866-874.
[12] Lin Y.J. & Farahati R. ÔÇÿCAD-Based Virtual Assembly Prototyping - A
Case Study-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 21 (2003), pp. 263-274.
[13] Seth A., Su H. & Vance J. ÔÇÿA desktop networked haptic VR interface for
mechanical assembly-. Proc. of IMECE -05, (2005), ASME, Orlando,
FL.
[14] Jayaram S., Joshi H., Jayaram U., Kim Y., Kate H. & Varoz L.
ÔÇÿEmbedding haptics-enabled virtual tool in CAD for training
applications-. Proc. of IDETC/CIE (2006), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[15] Adam S.C., Scott D.M. & Bert B. ÔÇÿA haptic assembly and disassembly
simulation environment and associated computational load optimization
techniques-. J Comput Inf Sci Eng, 1(2) (2001), pp. 113-122.
[16] Wan H., Shuming G. & Qunsheng P. ÔÇÿVirtual grasping for virtual
assembly tasks-. Proc. of third international conference on Image &
Graphics, ICIG -04, (2004).
[17] Seth A., Su H. & Vance J. ÔÇÿSHARP: A system for haptic assembly and
realistic prototyping-. Proc. of DETC -06, ASME, IDETC/CIE (2006),
Philadelphia, PA.
[18] Choi A.C.K., Chan D.S.K. & Yuen M.F. ÔÇÿApplications of virtual
assembly tools for improving product design-. Int J Adv Manuf Tecnol,
19(5) (2002), pp. 377-383.
[19] Sayers H. ÔÇÿDesktop virtual environments: A study of navigation and
age-. Interacting with Computers, 16(5) (2004), pp. 939-956.
[20] Gupta R., Whiney D. & Zeltzer D. ÔÇÿPrototyping and design for assembly
analysis using multimodal virtual environments-. Computer-Aided
Design, 29 (1997), pp. 585-597.
[21] Li J.R., Khoo L.P. & Tor S.B. ÔÇÿDesktop virtual reality for maintenance
training: An object oriented prototype system (V-REALISM)-.
Computers in Industry, 52(2) (2003), pp. 109-125.
[22] Pere E., Langrana N., Gomez D. & Burdea G. ÔÇÿVirtual mechanical
assembly on a PC-based system-. Proc. of ASME design engineering
technical conferences and computers and information in engineering
conference, DETC -96 (1996), Irvine, CA.
[23] Brough J.E., Schwartz M., Gupta S.K., Anand D.K., Kavetsky R. &
Petterson R. ÔÇÿTowards the development of the virtual environment-based
training system for mechanical assembly operations-. Virtual Reality,
11(4) (2007), pp. 189-206.
[24] Wan H., Gao S., Peng Q., Dai G. & Zhang H. ÔÇÿMIVAS: A multi-modal
immersive virtual assembly system-. Proc. of ASME design engineering
technical conferences and computers and information in engineering
conference, DETC -04, (2004), Salt Lake City, UT.
[25] Xia P.J., Lopes A.M., Restivo M.T. & Yao Y.X. ÔÇÿA new type hapticsbased
virtual environment system for assembly training of complex
products-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, (2011), DOI: 10.1007/s00170-011-
3381-8.
[26] Yao Y.X., Xia P.J., Liu J.S. & Li J.G. ÔÇÿA pragmatic system to support
interactive assembly planning and training in an immersive virtual
environment (I-VAPTS)-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol , 30(9-10) (2006),
pp. 959-967.
[27] McNeely W.A., Puterbaugh K.D. & Troy J.J. ÔÇÿSix degree-of-freedom
haptic rendering using voxel sampling-. Proc. of SIGGRAPH -99,
annual conference series, (1999), Los Angeles, CA.
[28] Gottschalk S., Lin M.C. & Manocha D. ÔÇÿOBB Tree: A hierarchal
structure for rapid interference detection-. Proc. of ACM
SIGGRAPH-96, (1996), pp. 171-180.
[29] Su C.J., Lin F. & Ye L. (1999). ÔÇÿA new collision detection method for
CSG-represented objects in virtual manufacturing-. Computers in
Industry, 40 (1999), pp. 1-13.
[30] CyberGlove. (2009). http://www.cyberglovesystems.com/products/cyber
grasp/overview.
[31] Wang Q.H., Li J.R. & Gong H.Q. ÔÇÿA CAD-linked virtual assembly
environment-. Int J Prod Res, 44(3) (2006), pp. 467-486.
[32] Jezernik A. & Hren G. ÔÇÿA solution to integrate computer-aided design
(CAD) and virtual reality (VR) databases in design and manufacturing
processes-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 22 (2003), pp. 768-774.
[33] Worldviz Vizard. (2010). http://www.worldviz.com/products/vizard/feat
ures.html
[34] Python. (2010). http://www.python.org/doc/essays/comparisions.html
[35] Vizard Toolkit Hardware. (2010). http://www.worldviz.com/products/pe
ripherals/index.html
[36] Taylor II R.M., Hudson T.C., Seeger A., Weber H., Juliano J. & Helser
A.T. ÔÇÿVRPN: A device-independent, network-transparent VR peripheral
system-. Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality
software and technology (2001), NY, USA.
[37] Wang Q., Green M. & Shaw C. ÔÇÿEM-an environment manager for
building networked virtual environments-. Proceedings of the Virtual
Reality Annual International Symposium -95, Washington DC, USA.
[38] DIVE. (2009). http://www.sics.se/dive/manual/dive_file_format/dive_fil
e_format.html
[39] Calvin J., Dickens A., Metzger P., Miller D. & Owen D. ÔÇÿThe SIMNET
virtual world architecture-. Proc. of IEEE Virtual Reality Annual
International Symposium -93, (1993), Seattle, WA, USA.
[40] Pulkkinen P. ÔÇÿOpenGL and RenderMan Rendering Architectures-.
Seminar on Computer Graphics, HUT, Telecommunications Software
and Multimedia Laboratory (2002).
[41] Jiang-sheng L., Ying-xue Y., Pahlovy S.A. & Jian-guang L. ÔÇÿA novel
data decomposition and information translation method from CAD
system to virtual assembly application-. Int J Adv Manuf Technol, 28
(2006), pp. 395-402.
[42] Hearn D., Baker M.P. & Carithers W. ÔÇÿComputer Graphics with
OpenGL, 4th ed-. ISBN-10: 0136053580, (2010), Prentice Hall.
[43] Ren L., Pfister H. & Zwicker M. ÔÇÿObject Space EWA Surface Splatting:
A Hardware Accelerated Approach to High Quality Point Rendering-.
Computer Graphics Forum, 21 (2002), pp. 461-470.
[44] Grossman J.P. & Dally W.J. ÔÇÿPoint Sample Rendering-. Proc. of
Rendering Techniques -98, (1998).
[45] Wu X. ÔÇÿAn efficient antialiasing technique-. ACM SIGGRAPH
Computer Graphics, 25(4) (1991), pp. 143-152.
[46] Redon S., Kheddar A. & Conquillart S. ÔÇÿFast Continuous Collision
Detection between Rigid Bodies-. Proc. of Eurographics -02, vol. 21 (3)
(2002).
[47] Held M., Klosowski J.T. & Mitchell J.S.B. ÔÇÿEvaluation of Collision
Detection Methods for Virtual Reality Fly-Throughs-. Proc. of Canadian
Conference on Computational Geometry, (1995), pp.205-210.
[48] Zachmann G. ÔÇÿReal-Time And Exact Collision Detection For Interactive
Virtual Prototyping-. Proc. of the 1997 ASME Design Engineering
Technical Conferences, (1997), pp. 14-17.
[49] Su C.J., Fu-Hua L. & Zhang X. ÔÇÿAn efficient collision detection
methodology for virtual assembly-. Proc. of IEEE conference on
Systems, Man and Cybernetics, (1998), pp. 360-365.
@article{"International Journal of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Sciences:57483", author = "Emad S. Abouel Nasr and Abdulaziz M. El-Tamimi and Mustufa H. Abidi and Abdulrahman M. Al-Ahmari", title = "Virtual Assembly in a Semi-Immersive Environment", abstract = "Virtual Assembly (VA) is one of the key technologies
in advanced manufacturing field. It is a promising application of
virtual reality in design and manufacturing field. It has drawn much
interest from industries and research institutes in the last two decades.
This paper describes a process for integrating an interactive Virtual
Reality-based assembly simulation of a digital mockup with the
CAD/CAM infrastructure. The necessary hardware and software
preconditions for the process are explained so that it can easily be
adopted by non VR experts. The article outlines how assembly
simulation can improve the CAD/CAM procedures and structures;
how CAD model preparations have to be carried out and which
virtual environment requirements have to be fulfilled. The issue of
data transfer is also explained in the paper. The other challenges and
requirements like anti-aliasing and collision detection have also been
explained. Finally, a VA simulation has been carried out for a ball
valve assembly and a car door assembly with the help of Vizard
virtual reality toolkit in a semi-immersive environment and their
performance analysis has been done on different workstations to
evaluate the importance of graphical processing unit (GPU) in the
field of VA.", keywords = "Collision Detection, Graphical Processing Unit
(GPU), Virtual Reality (VR), Virtual Assembly (VA).", volume = "7", number = "2", pages = "270-10", }
