MANUFACTURING SYSTEM SIMULATION AND HUMAN ROBOT INTERACTION IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Virtual Reality techniques are relatively new, having experienced significant development only during the last few years, in accordance with the progress achieved by computer science and hardware and software technologies. Therefore, there has not yet been a great diffusion and application of VR techniques in the industrial field, in spite of the constant reduction in the costs. This is particularly true in Italy, the subject of this discussion. The study of such advanced design systems has led to the realization of an immersive environment in which new procedures for the evaluation of product prototypes, ergonomics and manufacturing operations have been simulated. The positive and enthusiastic response received from the industrial world has confirmed that these methodologies can be extremely useful in the design phase, influencing the development time and the quality of industrial products. The application of the environment realized to robotics, ergonomics, plant simulations and maintainability verifications has allowed us to highlight the advantages offered by a design methodology: the possibility of working on the industrial product in the first phase of conception; of placing the designer in front of the virtual reproduction of the product in a realistic way; and of interacting with the same concept. All this allows the modification and improvement of the product characteristics in real time with a remarkable saving of time and costs. Moreover, during the application of VR to industrial case studies, the designers could take advantage of the developed methodology in the design phase, in particular in the planning of new service systems, having the possibility to visualize and to interact with models in real dimensions. The research area “Virtual Manufacturing” (hereafter often abbreviated as VM) can be defined as an integrated manufacturing environment which can enhance one or more levels of decision and control in the manufacturing process. Several domains can be addressed: Product and Process Design, Process and Production Planning, Machine Tools and Robot and Manufacturing Systems. As automation technologies such as CAD/CAM have substantially shortened the time required to design products, VM is having a similar effect on the manufacturing phase thanks to the modelling, simulation and optimisation of the product and the processes involved in its fabrication. Manufacturing is an indispensable part of the economy and is the central activity that encompasses product, process, resources and plant. Nowadays products are more and more complex, processes are highly sophisticated and use micro-technology and mechatronics and market demand is evolving and expanding rapidly, so that we need a flexible and lean production. Moreover manufacturing enterprises may be widely distributed geographically and linked conceptually in terms of dependence and material, information and knowledge flow. In this complex and developing environment, industrialists must be informed about their processes before their application in order to “get it right first time”. To achieve this goal, the use of a VM environment provides a computer-based environment to simulate individual manufacturing processes and the total manufacturing enterprise. VM systems enable early optimization of cost, quality and time drivers, achieve integrated product, process and resource design and finally allow an early consideration of productivity and affordability. The aim of this research activity is to present an updated vision of VM through different aspects. This study will take into account the market penetration of several tools with respect to their state of development and the differences in terms of effort and level of detail between industrial tools and academic research. We will describe the trends and results achieved in the automotive, aerospace and railway fields, in terms of the Digital Product Creation Process to design the product and the manufacturing process.