Immersive product configurator for conceptual design

Currently, new product concepts are evaluated by developing detailed virtual part and assembly models with traditional Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools followed by appropriate analyses (e.g., finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, etc.). The creation of these models and analyses are tremendously time consuming. If a number of different conceptual configurations have been determined, it may not be possible to model and analyze each of them. Thus, promising concepts might be eliminated based solely on insufficient time to assess them. In addition, the virtual models and analyses performed are usually of much higher detail and accuracy than what is needed for such early assessment. By eliminating the time-consuming complexity of a CAD environment and incorporating qualitative assessment tools, engineers could spend more time evaluating additional concepts, which were previously abandoned due to time constraints. In this paper, a software framework, the Advanced Systems Design Suite (ASDS), for creating and evaluating conceptual design configurations in an immersive virtual reality environment is presented. The ASDS allows design concepts to be quickly modeled, analyzed, and visualized. It incorporates a PC user interface with an immersive virtual reality environment to ease the creation and assessment of conceptual design prototypes. The development of the modeling and assessment tools are presented along with a test case to demonstrate the usability and effectiveness of the framework.