Human Robot Interaction in Virtual Reality

In this paper, we describe a framework which helps designers visualize and verify the results of robotic work cell simulation in a Virtual Environment (VE). The system aims at significantly reducing production costs and error sources during manufacturing processes. The means to achieve these goals are the development of a prototypical VE for the support of robots planning tasks, reuse of animation events, and the implementation of customization tools for animation elements and their behavior. By using advanced Virtual Reality (VR) techniques, the system is also able to direct the focus of the observer to interesting events, objects and time-frames during robotic simulations in order to highlight the Human Robot Interaction within the manufacturing systems.