Automatic visibility evaluation method for application in virtual prototyping environment

The evaluation of visibility factor is an essential activity in the ergonomic analysis and verification process. It influences the product quality and production efficiency significantly. However, manual evaluation of the visibility factor in a virtual prototyping environment is complicated and time-consuming owing to the high complexity of products and manufacturing processes. This paper presents an automatic visibility evaluation method. A view-region model that conforms to the physiological characteristics of field-of-view (FOV) is designed and constructed. The surfaces of the observed-object are discretised into a series of triangular meshes, which function as the evaluation units. A cluster of radial test lines, which represent the rays reflected from each mesh, are generated. The visible types of these meshes are assessed by detecting and analysing these test lines. The authors develop a set of computation models for evaluating various visibility-influencing factors. In addition, the overall quantitative and qualitative visibility evaluation results are provided. A case study is illustrated and the results reveal that this method can evaluate the visibility effectively. Furthermore, the potential visibility-related ergonomic problems can be detected and addressed in advance with the aid of this method.