A pragmatic system to support interactive assembly planning and training in an immersive virtual environment (I-VAPTS)

Assembly planning for complex products is a difficult task requiring both intensive knowledge and experience. Computer aided assembly planning (CAAP) systems have been the subject of considerable research in recent years without achieving a wide application in manufacturing industry. In this paper an alternative approach to the generation of an optimal assembly planning scheme is presented based on the adoption of immersive virtual reality. A product is assembled from CAD models by providing a CAD interface to transfer assembly constraint information from the CAD system to a virtual environment. In the virtual environment an efficient dynamic recognition and management method based on surface geometry is employed, and a process-oriented assembly task model is established to support interactive assembly planning and evaluation. The system is implemented using an object oriented methodology, and has been successfully applied to train and guide the assembly workers in a pump assembly process.