Category:Automotive and Transport

From EuroVR Knowledge Base

Brief overview of area

From a historical perspective, the Automotive industry has been among the most active in introducing simulation and visualization technologies into the technical operation. For many years, the use of a visual workstation has been ubiquitous in the technical and styling departments, as a successful response to the increasing needs of cost and time reduction in the development process, and better sharing of ideas, solutions and issues also to non specialist actors, are often the decisors.

Based on this, VR technologies have allowed the evaluation of the product under development either to be handled in a more naturalistic way, especially for styling, but also in visualizing post-processed results of simulations such as in DMU analysis and scientific visualization, e.g. fluid dynamics and crash analysis results.
The huge investments needed, especially in the past, have favoured those applications which, beyond being adequately mature, have given perceivable advantages in terms of cost saving (e.g. reduction of need for physical mock-ups in styling) or added coverage of performance evaluation.

These factors have in a way confined VR applications to those fields in which visual appreciation by a technician or decisors were relevant; in this context, mainly decisional or presentational activities have benefited from the use of VR.

Nowadays, almost all styling and vehicle engineering departments in automotive OEMs are equipped with stereo walls, as well as key engineering and styling service providers. Other visualization techniques, such as, for example, HMD, have been explored and used at R and D or feasibility phases. Other immersive solutions, such as the CAVE®, are used in more than one company either for R and D works or for development in certain specific fields, such as styling of interiors or ergonomics.

Some OEM and a few suppliers have begun to use VR systems for R and D operations, in departments where competencies in ergonomics and VR technologies and systems are often incorporated. In transport service industries, the usage of VR technologies is still casual, mainly through suppliers of material or infrastructures. Moreover, being a service immaterial by its nature, focus is on validation of instruments (vehicles, stations, etc) by decisors, or in evaluation of the service itself as well as the material, on a user perspective. In this respect, it appears that there is a strong convergence of objectives and needs within the automotive industry, especially concerning user perception and evaluation. In all cases, the need/opportunity for increasing the performance coverage during development and lifecycle, exploring new and innovative ideas in a rapidly evolving scenario, together with the initial reduction of costs for equipment - at least for the computing power - has attracted much attention to expanding the implementation of VR technologies in other phases of the industrial process.

Vision and potential scenarios of use

A couple of hypothetical, paradigmatic use cases are reported below, to describe how the work can be positively influenced by the application of future VR technologies, and to envisage new applications and identify key technologies and systems which enable the achievement of these operation scenarios. It should also be noted that these scenario also have an exemplary value, in that other applications and process phases share the same needs and operational characteristics.

Engineering activity

A fluid dynamics engineer is evaluating the behaviour of a concept vehicle exterior, by “blowing” a virtual smoke wind around a virtual body which she can freely walk around and position as she likes. Meanwhile, she can obtain objective aerodynamics figures in the preferred format: tables, graphs, even colour maps on and around the vehicle body. Data appear on a virtual screen, which follows the engineer in the room. For this activity the engineer wears lightweight goggles and her position, posture and gesture are reproduced by remote motion tracking systems. An audio system reproduces the wind noise generated by the body; at will the engineer can superimpose engine and rolling noise. All the commands and inputs are given via voice with natural language. The engineer discovers a critical point in the front windshield pillar, due to a innovative choice by the stylist, which has already been validated by the ergonomics department. The engineer, by manipulating the vehicle body in a natural way, eventually achieves the desired performance, at the cost of changing both the styling and the external visibility. A “virtual ergonomist”, an application running in background, checks the ergonomical validity of the alternate solution and gives the green light. Instead, no agent can assess the impact on styling, due to the necessity of direct evaluation by the stylist; therefore, the engineer is not allowed to validate her solution. While she has the freedom of exploring alternate solutions, the engineer must contact the stylist for negotiating. The engineer decides to call the stylist, remotely located at a conference in a similar room. The two actors can see and talk to each other, and each can see (and share) their preferred representation. Respective reasons are explained, aided by examples; eventually the stylist creatively explores and finalizes a new solution, which gives the required aerodynamics performance. During this meeting, some solutions are discarded because the “virtual ergonomist” has flagged up a warning re. visibility. After the meeting, each actor validates the solution and the concept is forwarded to the management meeting for styling approval.

This scenario is just one example of the multi-disciplinary interactions which occur or could occur once the suitable VEs are made available. Relevant examples might include:

• concurrent crashworthiness – packaging optimization
• posture and HMI usability

and others.

To realize this class of scenarios, at least the following technologies and systems should be available:

• Lightweight 3D glasses
• Remote full body motion tracking
• Natural voice input
• Real time spatial noise simulation
• Multi-domain correlated product representations, incorporating design and engineering criteria
• Interactive product representation manipulation
• VE “embedded” technical and scientific data visualization
• Technologies for embedded real time simulation of product performance, incorporating necessary human behaviour simulation (e.g. for ergonomics)
• Live remote collaboration technologies

User driven concept identification

The product portfolio department has briefed the vehicle set-up team about a new small car with a strong hi-tech feeling and highest perceived environmental friendliness. The Voice of the Customer Department organizes a focus group discussion with a panel of potential customers located at different sites. The users are asked to transform the briefing into contents and desired performances. A designer, on the fly, implements the required qualities in a series of concept sketches, which can be observed and evaluated by the panel in a “dealership” set-up. A series of candidate concepts is identified and the company vehicle archetype is instantiated to adequately represent the concept. Included are equipment and materials and surfaces with visual and tactile properties. A second session with a reduced panel is organized at a VR driving simulator, where a panel of users is free to pick and position, from a virtual shelf, equipment and materials, and can also intervene on the shapes. Weird or unacceptable positions and shapes are discouraged by the system, which incorporates agents for evaluating ergonomics, manufacturability and family feeling qualities. Each user, after having “built” her ideal interiors, is free to drive and use the equipment by simulated driving, as well as “touching” the surfaces and the components themselves. After this session, another interactive focus group session identifies the best candidate solution for the set-up work of styling and ergonomics, and associated disciplines.

This scenario requires the availability of a series of technologies, in addition to a subset of the ones identified in the previous scenario (e.g. Lightweight 3D glasses, remote full body motion tracking, multi-domain correlated product representations):

• 2d and 3d virtual sketch with immediate generation of adequate vehicle concept representations
• Multi-user, non-obtrusive interactive 3d visualization
• Multi-user remote motion tracking
• Interoperability between conceptual and technical vehicle representations (user requirement engineering)
• Multidomain immersive vehicle and driving simulation
• Natural interaction with product representations
• Haptics for the rendering of surface shapes and “touch and feel” characteristics
• 3D content and context based search and retrieval of components from automotive design databases
• Ontology assisted access of content for supporting complex configuration models

These technologies, at least partially, could also contribute to realize other scenarios, such as interactive configuration of the car at the dealership, maintenance training and similar.

Useful links

Automotive Roadmap Presentation to MIMOS2006 Conference Turin (italian national event)