A Structured Approach to Simulate Manufacturing Systems in Virtual Environment

Nowadays, the realization of the Virtual Factory (VF) is the strategic goal of many manufacturing enterprises for the coming years. The industrial scenario is characterized by the dynamics of innovations increment and the product life cycle became shorter. Furthermore products and the corresponding manufacturing processes get more and more complex. Therefore, companies need new methods for the planning of manufacturing systems. To date, the efforts have focused on the creation of an integrated environment to design and manage the manufacturing process of a new product. The future goal is to integrate Virtual Reality (VR) tools into the Product Lifecycle Management of the manufacturing industries. In order to realize this goal the authors have conducted a study to perform VF simulation steps for a supplier of Industrial Automation Systems and have provided a structured approach focusing on interaction between simulation software and VR hardware tools in order to simulate both robotic and manual work cells. The first results of the study in progress have been carried out in the VR Laboratory of the Competence Regional Centre for the qualification of the Transportation Systems that has been founded by Campania Region.