Computational Research

Featured Projects

Distributed VR
An architecture that provides strategies for scalability and distributed computations in virtual assembly applications has been developed at the VRCIM Laboratory. The proposed system has been designed to allow collaborative assembly design sessions with multiple users (geographically distributed) working together, with several different levels of physically-based modeling techniques for simulating the virtual environment. A prototype of this system has been implemented using CORBA as the key supporting distribution technology. An event-based virtual assembly system has been designed based on a CORBA architecture that consists of a central server, a VADE client, and a remote viewer. The Remote Viewer allows a user at a distant geographic location to observe and participate in an assembly process simulation.

Ontology Based Integration of Immersive Environments for Engineering Design
Our goal is to use ontology for a true integration of software systems. In the design process, many different types of software applications often need to work collaboratively on one or more products. Our aim is to use ontology to help applications “understand” each other and achieve the goal of “real” integration for a concurrent use of various simulation and analysis technologies for product realization. This understanding goes beyond data translation and data integration but gets into the true realm of design intent and design thought process. Our primary focus is on the integration of immersive environment technologies used in the design/manufacturing of mechanical systems.

Calibration of Immersive Environments
A real-time integrated calibration system for virtual reality environments has been developed that enables accurate electromagnetic tracking of user motions for virtual reality applications. Electromagnetic tracking systems suffer degradation in accuracy due to the presence of metals and other electromagnetic distortions in the environment. Calibration of the virtual environment to account for these distortions is essential for VR applications in engineering where correlation between the virtual environment and the physical world is important. This project focuses on an integrated calibration system used with an electromagnetic tracking system to handle the above the problem.

Prototype Human Model for the Evaluation of a Crew Transportation Module
A stand alone human model designed to be easily integrated into any immersive or non immersive software system.  This project incorporates a completely scalable human model.  This human model has been successfully inserted into a MuSE based environment. See More->