Human interface and interaction in the WITS training system.

摘要

This thesis research addresses the challenges involved in the design of WITS, the Welding Intelligent Tutoring System. The project was motivated by the desire of providing a realistic training environment for maintenance workers involved in the repair of grounding fixtures on electrical power station equipment. The thesis elaborates on each of WITS' three subcomponents: the user interface and peripherals, the expert system, and the 3D virtual environment. The research focuses on the creation of a 3D representation of the operator and his tools. This virtual operator is built to have basic interaction capabilities namely touch and grasp and is made capable of communicating with the expert system which contains the task expertise and thus provides the necessary coaching. Keyboard and voice command interfaces were also developed so that users with no access to a graphical virtual environment can still take full advantage of the expert system.