A Virtual Environment for Collaborative Inspection in Additive Manufacturing

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Chheang, Vuthea, Weston, Brian Thomas, Cerda, Robert William, Au, Brian, Giera, Brian, Bremer, Peer-Timo, Miao, Haichao
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866911797612642304
author Chheang, Vuthea
Weston, Brian Thomas
Cerda, Robert William
Au, Brian
Giera, Brian
Bremer, Peer-Timo
Miao, Haichao
author_facet Chheang, Vuthea
Weston, Brian Thomas
Cerda, Robert William
Au, Brian
Giera, Brian
Bremer, Peer-Timo
Miao, Haichao
contents Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have been used to enhance the design and fabrication of complex components for various applications in the medical, aerospace, energy, and consumer products industries. A defining feature for many AM parts is the complex internal geometry enabled by the printing process. However, inspecting these internal structures requires volumetric imaging, i.e., X-ray CT, leading to the well-known challenge of visualizing complex 3D geometries using 2D desktop interfaces. Furthermore, existing tools are limited to single-user systems making it difficult to jointly discuss or share findings with a larger team, i.e., the designers, manufacturing experts, and evaluation team. In this work, we present a collaborative virtual reality (VR) for the exploration and inspection of AM parts. Geographically separated experts can virtually inspect and jointly discuss data. It also supports VR and non-VR users, who can be spectators in the VR environment. Various features for data exploration and inspection are developed and enhanced via real-time synchronization. We followed usability and interface verification guidelines using Nielsen's heuristics approach. Furthermore, we conducted exploratory and semi-structured interviews with domain experts to collect qualitative feedback. Results reveal potential benefits, applicability, and current limitations. The proposed collaborative VR environment provides a new basis and opens new research directions for virtual inspection and team collaboration in AM settings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_08940
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Virtual Environment for Collaborative Inspection in Additive Manufacturing
Chheang, Vuthea
Weston, Brian Thomas
Cerda, Robert William
Au, Brian
Giera, Brian
Bremer, Peer-Timo
Miao, Haichao
Human-Computer Interaction
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have been used to enhance the design and fabrication of complex components for various applications in the medical, aerospace, energy, and consumer products industries. A defining feature for many AM parts is the complex internal geometry enabled by the printing process. However, inspecting these internal structures requires volumetric imaging, i.e., X-ray CT, leading to the well-known challenge of visualizing complex 3D geometries using 2D desktop interfaces. Furthermore, existing tools are limited to single-user systems making it difficult to jointly discuss or share findings with a larger team, i.e., the designers, manufacturing experts, and evaluation team. In this work, we present a collaborative virtual reality (VR) for the exploration and inspection of AM parts. Geographically separated experts can virtually inspect and jointly discuss data. It also supports VR and non-VR users, who can be spectators in the VR environment. Various features for data exploration and inspection are developed and enhanced via real-time synchronization. We followed usability and interface verification guidelines using Nielsen's heuristics approach. Furthermore, we conducted exploratory and semi-structured interviews with domain experts to collect qualitative feedback. Results reveal potential benefits, applicability, and current limitations. The proposed collaborative VR environment provides a new basis and opens new research directions for virtual inspection and team collaboration in AM settings.
title A Virtual Environment for Collaborative Inspection in Additive Manufacturing
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.08940