Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Civil/Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering
Session: 2
Room: Exhibit Hall A
Kyah Tucker - Virginia State University
Co-Author(s): Dr. Ju Wang, Virginia State University, Ettrick, VA; Dr. Zhenhua Wu, Virginia State University, Ettrick, VA;
Background and Importance: Digital manufacturing uses a digital thread to link every phase in the product life cycle from design and manufacturing to sales and recycling. Virtual reality (VR) and animation help visualize and display different manufacturing processes, especially for manufacturing education and workforce development. The software of Unity has been used to aid in the implementation of MANEUVER (Manufacturing Education Using Virtual Environment Resources). This methodology utilizes a multi-modal VR framework for digital manufacturing instruction. The multi-modal VR framework includes: 1) desktop VR (dVR); 2) augmented VR (aVR); and 3) immersive VR (iVR). Methods: The objective of this study is to investigate the design process of a virtual milling machine. The milling machine program was executed utilizing 3D objects in Unity and the program interface which was initialized by C-Sharp programming language. Desktop VR (dVR) was utilized for the Milling Machine program. The Unity/WebGL platform was used for the virtual simulation of digital manufacturing processes and procedures. The focus of the research was direct digital manufacturing with computer numerical control (CNC) machine. Results and Future Work: The program allows the user to operate the milling tool by using input commands from the keyboard. Each component of the program is controlled by a script (a piece of code) that is manipulated to meet the program needs. To further the research, our goal is to expand the program to add a 3D printer to display the 3D printing process.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1818655. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Faculty Advisor: Zhenua Wu, zwu@vsu.edu
Role: The part of the research I completed was the utilization of the Unity Program Software and analyzing the code for the MANEUVER program. I was responsible for researching the design process of the virtual milling machine and program interface.