Application Status and Prospect of Virtual Manufacturing in Automotive Industry

Virtual reality technology, developed in recent years, advanced computer technology is based on computer graphics, simulation, parallel technology, artificial intelligence, multimedia technology and high-performance computer systems and other technologies based on. At present, there is no exact definition of it in the world, and different people have different understandings about it. So, what is virtual reality? The more representative explanation has the following three kinds:

(1) Virtual Reality Sometimes referred to as the Spirit and Fantasy, the English name VirtualReality, or VR for short, is a computer system that creates and experiences Virtual World. The virtual world here is the entire virtual environment (VirtualEnvironment) or a given simulation object. The "virtual environment" generally refers to computer generated three-dimensional graphics, which can be a manifestation of a particular real environment, it can be a purely conceptual world.

(2) Virtual Reality is a way for people to see and interact with extremely complex data through a computer.

(3) Virtual reality is a medium, which has a three-dimensional synthesis environment in which people can continuously, freely and freely explore, examine and experience in any real-time manner from any point of view as they wish.

1 Introduction

Virtual Reality was first formally proposed by Jaron Lanier, one of the founding members of the US VPL company, in the early 1980s. He believes that virtual reality technology has made a qualitative leap compared to the traditional "human-machine interface." The traditional "human-machine interface" is that users and computers are regarded as two independent entities. The interface is regarded as the medium of information exchange. Users input or request commands or instructions into the computer, and the computer feeds back the information or actions. The virtual reality technology takes the user and the computer as a whole and visualizes the information through various intuitive tools. The user can freely manipulate and control various information in this three-dimensional information space, thereby becoming the owner of the information.

The virtual reality technology has four important features: Multi-Sensory, Interaction, Immersion and Autonomy. Immersion is the feeling that the user has "immersive", while interaction means that the user can manipulate objects in the environment with everyday use.

As the development of global virtual reality technology is in the ascendant, industrial countries such as the United States, Japan, and Europe are ready to use the technology as a key measure to compete with the future market. For the automotive industry, virtual reality is both a state-of-the-art technology development methodology and more of a sophisticated simulation tool designed to create an artificial environment in which people can navigate in a "natural" manner , Operation and design and other real-time activities. And virtual reality technology can also be widely used in automotive design, testing and training.

2, the application of virtual reality technology in the automotive industry

2.1 in the product design

With the help of virtual reality technology, a 3-D car model can display the suspension, chassis and interior of the car up to every welding point. The designer can determine the quality of each component and understand the running performance of each component. This three-dimensional model is highly accurate and automakers can make large-scale production directly from the available computer data.

General Motors is one of the first companies in the automotive world to leverage virtual reality technology. It uses virtual reality software with three graphics pipeline components that can be projected on the designer's left, front and on the big screen on the ground, while a separate desktop system is sometimes used as the right of the fourth wall, the designer With the software you can design a vivid car.

At GM's technology center, when staff members enter the studio where virtual reality is being done, they wear display screens such as stereo filter glasses or helmet-mounted displays, data gloves, and real-world cars on the big screen The same size of three-dimensional images, it has a completely real three-dimensional space, people can walk around the car around the observation, put forward the idea of ​​improving the various parts, you can also in another design room, sitting in the car's seat, so that a variety of A variety of dashboards, gearshift gears and various attachments are displayed in front of them, along with engineers sitting on the other side of the cab to evaluate and improve the car's interior. This vivid scene of virtual reality presented before your eyes makes you feel entirely immersive and create a car with your own imagination.

At Ford Motor Company, the product designer uses virtual reality software to see the articulation of the virtual car door and bonnet, conceived to solve ergonomics and vision issues at the cab seat. You can also observe the car running on the country road scene. Meanwhile, powertrain engineers simulated engine maintenance by replacing a virtual oil filter.

Recently, a company based in Wisconsin, USA, called M & L Automotive, designed a sedan called "Predator" at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour using computer software that produced a virtual model of the car, The car is the world's first car designed without drawings and clay models. This software can not only simulate the appearance of the car's shape, but also simulate the car's internal structure and operation. The "prey" in the design of the first vehicle is divided into several parts, the designer part by part to be modified until satisfied. The assembly is then done and the entire design can still be modified as a whole, even if the well-designed parts are assembled into a complete car.

At the costly Mercedes Automotive Design Center at DaimlerChrysler, designers can work in a virtual environment of the center's Virtual Reality Center where bodybuilders can check the body line And contouring, testing the finish of the body surface, and analyzing the aerodynamic performance of the car.

According to reports, GM and DaimlerChrysler company using virtual reality technology to develop a new model of the time from more than 1 year to about two months, development costs can be reduced up to one-tenth, while conventional, Just look at the model development time, the design of the new car, at least 12 to 18 months.

In Mazda Motor Company's car virtual showroom, in order to allow customers to buy the ideal type of car, with a special helmet and gloves. Customers can change the color and build of the car with helmets and gloves.

2.2 in the automotive manufacturing applications

Virtual reality is the foundation and soul of virtual manufacturing system, which is a comprehensive system formed by multidisciplinary knowledge. It uses computer support technology to comprehensively model and simulate the automobile that must be manufactured and manufactured. It can simulate the actual production Of materials and products, while generating information about them. It is also possible to develop machining programs for parts production, develop product inspection and test procedures.

Virtual manufacturing system (Virtual manufacturing system) by the virtual information system (Virtualinformationsystem) and virtual physical system (Virtualphysicalsystem) composition. Virtual information system, also called virtual logic system, is mainly used to simulate the information in manufacturing activities such as design, management and schedule. The virtual physical system is a computer that models the actual machining shop, including machine tools , materials, workers, etc. , And on the basis of this model to simulate the actual manufacturing system manufacturing process. The information in the virtual physical manufacturing system is consistent with the actual manufacturing system, which is the key to the virtual manufacturing system.

The application of virtual manufacturing technology to the entire life cycle of a car makes it easy to model, modify, analyze, and optimize production systems and processes before the design of automotive production equipment, tooling and molds, and even prototypes. Virtual reality technology is widely used in the design and application of FMS (Flexible Manufacturing System) and Computer Integrated Manufacturing System (CMIS).

As early as 1997, Ford Motor Company declared that it had become the first automobile manufacturer to adopt computer virtual design and assembly technology. The adoption of these technologies can greatly boost the company's ability to bring new cars and trucks to the market faster. Ford uses the software provided by Israel's Technomatix Technologies.

It is reported that at General Motors, GM, car designers can use the virtual reality prototype technology to carefully test, staff can drive a virtual car driving in the virtual road in order to check the car's various functions, or sit in the cab check the field of vision Situation and so on. In addition, the virtual manufacturing system is also applied to parallel design and assembly of gears and training of robots.

Because both the production process and the design process use the same computer virtual model and device model, it is possible to model the manufacturing process such as design and manufacturing, simulate the entire process of manufacturing the product in real time and in parallel during the product design phase, and Its impact on product design, product performance prediction, product manufacturing technology, product manufacturability, so that more efficient, more economical, flexible and flexible organization of production, the factory and workshop design and layout more reasonable and more effective in order to achieve Product development cycle and cost minimization, product design optimization, production efficiency maximization.

Nissan uses virtual reality technology to simulate production processes that use virtual tools, virtual robots and virtual employees (wearing the same blue uniforms as Nissan's auto workers) to simulate a virtual production line using existing CAD information in the database , So that different problems in the production process are presented.

For example, Nissan used virtual reality software "test lines" to simulate the removal of airbag components from the dashboard. At this time, windshields were found to be in the way and the workers on the assembly lines had to work their necks with necks. As a result of pre-discovering this issue, And has been promptly resolved, to avoid the trouble of formal production.