Addressing Factory Design and Planning Using Simulation and Virtual Reality Technologies

摘要

Visualization has become a critical component of simulation technology in manufacturing applications. It provides the simulation practitioners with an environment to discuss and get a better understanding of the simulation model's behavior. Graphical presentation and animation can be a significant tool to communicate the outcome of simulation models for the non-technical audience. Decision makers often do not have the technical knowledge to understand the statistical results of a simulation model. But when the outcome can be expressed using an animation, a better level of understanding becomes possible. This paper discusses the integration of simulation and virtual reality technologies to address factory design and planning. In order to provide the most value to simulation practitioners, the presented approach allows the users to interact with the virtual model by voice commands and navigate the virtual environment using VR devices, e.g. Head Mounted Display (HMD). Also, the activities of the simulation model are graphically presented within the virtual environment in real time.