CAVE man: the virtual reality suite helps engineers review their designs in 3D
Professor Marius Swoboda uses a groundbreaking virtual reality suite to transport his team of engineers into an alternate reality
Many industries are reaping the rewards of integrating virtual reality (VR) into their day-to-day work. At Rolls-Royce, a pioneering suite is revolutionising how teams assemble powerful and critical components of their aircraft engines. The most thrilling part is that the possibilities of how this nascent technology is applied are constantly expanding.
Professor Marius Swoboda, head of design systems engineering at Rolls-Royce, has been the driving force behind the use of this technology. The suite, which can accommodate up to 10 people at a time, is known as the CAVE – Computational Automatic Virtual Reality. It was opened in September 2016 at the organisation’s Dahlewitz facility in Germany.
“The VR suite is used by different departments who are working on interface problems and want to review their geometric designs,” he explains. “An engine has a lot of oil, electricity, and air pipes, plus wiring and other elements. In the past, every department did their wiring and the routing independently from each other. Today, we can come together to discuss interface problems, and literally walk around the designs.”
Berlin-based Prof Swoboda, who will celebrate 23 years with Rolls-Royce in December, says his experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) – “visualising the flow through an engine” – helped him formulate the idea for the VR suite.
“The computations we do produce bunches of data, and to understand what is going on we have to visualise it somehow,” he continues. “I was thinking about using VR in 2009, but it has only been possible in the last five years to do this, because the technology has caught up. The collaboration with Brandenburg University’s media technology department in Cottbus has helped.”
The ability to track is key as it enables the team to feel as though they really are in the VR space. “It is very important technology,” Prof Swoboda says. “The tracking system differentiates this from 3D cinema and is enabled by having tracking glasses on the user’s head. Every time you move your eyes you are changing the scene, and that means you are able to really walk around an object in that area. It’s important to note that we use a frequency of 60Hz; if it is any lower the user gets seasick.
“Consider that if you look at a three-dimensional (3D) scene which is represented in 2D, your mind is making errors of about 40 per cent. If, however, you upgrade it to be 3D with tracking, the error rate is reduced to a fraction of that. You can recognise so many more problems within a 3D environment.”
,
,
Thinking outside the box: Professor Marius Swoboda CREDIT: ROLLS-ROYCE DEUTSCHLAND / STEFFEN WEIGELT
Prof Swoboda says that the new perspective of visualising data and designs means that the CAVE is an “ideas producer”. He adds: “Because the environment is so different, and we have a greater clarity, it allows us to create more ideas than we did previously.
“We have only been operational for just over a year, so we are still defining how to lead the teams through it. It’s impossible to just switch the suite on and use it without training. In the near future, we will have a unique smartphone interface that each individual department will be able to access with one click.”
This innovative application of VR is incredibly exciting for Rolls-Royce.The CAVE indicates how the engineering giant is thinking progressively in this area. VR technology is still in its infancy: there will only be more to come.
Source: The Telegraph