Machinery Service Accessibility Validations in VR

In this demo we use VR to evaluate in physically reliable model the behavior of operator’s hands and collisions with design objects as part of engineering evaluation of new product. Digital designs, with most things modelled in final part position, lack information on how components will arrive in final position. Left unexamined, one might leave design issues unobserved or undiscovered until production launch or worse experienced by real customers. Because components still frequently need to be accessed by operators in “Human-Centric Processes” that need to be validated; prove that product design and process plans account for operator reachability, accessibility, and visibility.

Digital transformation has had negative side-effects, one example is that the elimination of physical prototypes and reduced access mock-up environments risks design effectiveness. Interactions with products physically, their construction, operability with intended production tooling, and their use in reviews are invaluable in planning for installation, removal, & assembly tasks. In many cases, the experience of technicians participating in assembly piloting reviews, or service methods planning workshops, are reflected in the documented assembly or service process plans.

However, these kinds of findings are not “deterministic”, meaning that they are rarely things where one can universally define a computer aided engineering analysis to emerge them. Rather an individual, when asked to pick something up or install some component, might tell the other participants in a review that they had difficulty reaching or accessing something, which might be recorded and inform future decisions by engineers responsible for releasing the product or process plans. Unfortunately, no computer algorithm can predict which processes with which products might present risks when performed by some future workers. As a result sometimes we go all the way to serial production launch only to discover at the last minute a production issue that risks product damage, line stoppage, worker injury or worse.

By using Virtual reality to validate how people with be able to interact with products in the completion of key processes we can validate those Human Centric Product and Process issues, preventing or mitigating risks to Quality, Cost, Delivery Time, and Safety