Andrew G. Fischer
Virtual Reality Applications Center
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011
Kurt A. Chipperfield
Virtual Reality Applications Center
Judy M. Vance
Virtual Reality Applications Center
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011-2160
9th AIAA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference Proceedings, Atlanta, Georgia, September 4-6, 2002.
Abstract
Many industrial vehicles and machines use hydraulic hoses to transfer power. When designing these products, correctly routing the hoses becomes a time consuming task. It is difficult to specify the hose path in the three-dimensional space of a complex product using the traditional two-dimensional monitor, keyboard and mouse. Further, because of the properties of hydraulic hoses, it is difficult to predict the path that a hydraulic hose would take when placed in the product. VRHose is a hydraulic hose routing design environment that uses virtual reality to facilitate hose routing. The VRHose program is integrated with EDS’s JackTM software. Although JackTM software is generally used as a nonimmersive design tool, this project takes advantage of several aspects of the JackTM software to develop a fully-immersive, head mounted display implementation of a virtual reality application. VRHose allows designers to specify the hose route using an immersive virtual reality interface where a mathematical model of the hose is used to predict the final shape of the hose as it is placed in the product. A discussion of the virtual reality hardware used with VRHose is followed by a description of the software design. Finally, an example hose routing process is detailed.
