An engineering specialist named Neha Prajapat is leading a team of researchers on a virtual reality (VR) project at GE that seeks to address an intriguing problem: Is it possible to convert a standard 2D factory model into a scale 3D model for use in immersive visualization technologies like VR or 3D projection?
Being a gamer, Prajapat had the idea to use a Microsoft Kinect accessory to monitor the movements of factory workers in real time. Using engineering to reduce the amount of time and money it takes to create factory layout designs and offset construction costs are among the many important considerations for designing the best factory possible. The central challenge is to see whether or not a particular layout is the most optimized for various work and material flows.
Prajapat and her team began exploring how 3D modeling and discrete event simulation (DES) could be combined with the 3D visualization strengths of low-cost gaming technology (like the Kinect) to help design teams make better choices for future factory layouts. They wanted to create and explore a tool that would allow engineers to receive instantaneous feedback on design decisions. Such a tool would have the potential to reduce rework as well as cut the cost of making physical prototypes.
The global demand for making great factory designs is increasing and that means the typical plant manager who uses a CAD package is still basically using a 2D tool. But the reason behind the increased demand for better factory design layouts is that errors and suboptimal designs impact every point of a given operation, from the different workflows and different material flows to employee safety.
At this time, plant managers using a CAD package that is relatively 2D compared to virtual immersion can’t visualize the effects of important operational factors and they sometimes rely on DESs, which are used as 2D or 3D representations. Think of it this way: if you had a model of the room you’re in right now on your computer screen and were somewhere else, do you think you would be able to understand the nuances, subtleties and even general characteristics better from looking on the computer screen than you would being in the room itself?
Of course not. Which is why a 3D immersive environment that gives engineers a virtual presence more closely resembling actually being present in a factory (versus just looking at a model on a computer screen) will help them design better factory layouts before the construction phase.
Prajapat and her team went to 30 different locations at the GE plant in Rugby in the UK and laser scanned them. This allowed them to see simple real-time physical data, such as people walking around inside the factory, in real-time digital representations. They could capture where workers were going, monitor how long they spent on operations and see where people would create bottlenecks.
Prajapat reported to the Deccan Herald that she hopes GE factory designers will be able to use the data from the pilot program to make customized layout designs for new plants and factories that have an inherent ergonomic sensibility and are able to transmogrify with ease. Currently, GE Grid Solutions, GE Aviation, and GE Oil & Gas are using the technology to create better plants.
As interesting as it is to hear this news, it comes on the heels of GE’s announcement that it will be opening a new VR lab in the John F. Welch Technology Center in Bengalore, India. Transitioning from providing industrial solutions for physical infrastructure to creating powerful software solutions as the digital infrastructure continues its infinite expansion is particularly interesting from a historical vantage point. As a company, GE holds sway over a kind of portal between the physical and digital, where crucial design decisions are made every day that can have serious impacts on the relationship between and maintenance of a large percentage of global infrastructure.
The new VR lab has very little to do with headsets, though. It has a 12 x 8 ft screen where CAD models are 3D projected at a scale of 1:1 at a minimum. Custom infrared trackers and a fly stick give the immersed user control over the 3D model. This empowers the team to display and enter large 3D datasets and 3D virtual prototypes without any data conversion. This direct approach was used by the GE Transportation engineering team, which created and uses the lab, but there are plans to scale it up across different verticals within the company.
Reviewing products on a 2D computer screen and manipulating the CAD model can be a costly and boring process. Augmenting, changing and interacting with 3D models in real time simultaneously and non-contiguously have real advantages for a global behemoth like GE. This positively affects the design cycle time by shortening it. Besides the visual and immersive collaboration of engineers and designers, the VR lab is also beneficial for training service engineers by simulating and familiarizing them with the products they’ll be building, maintaining and repairing in the field.
It's not exactly new for GE to use VR in different capacities and for different projects around the world. In 2014, at the company’s research center in Brazil, an engineering team created a VR version of GE’s subsea oil technology. This creation was applied to Oculus Rift headsets and a vibrating electronic chair.
GE has also partnered with Reel FX Creative Studios to create “GE 360,” a series of stereoscopic live-action VR immersions. For example, you can take a deep dive into the design, development and testing of the GE Evolution Series Tier 4 Locomotive, which is the first locomotive that meets the U.S. EPA Tier 4 emissions standard in North America. The GE 9HA gas turbine, which is the largest high-efficiency turbo engine in the world right now, can also be viewed. The team from Reel FX wanted to figure out the best way to capture the massive gas turbine assembly facility and the huge test track to give viewers a real sense of the scope and breadth of GE’s operation.
GE also has a channel on Samsung Milk VR, the free hosting and distributing platform for VR videos aimed at giving Samsung Gear VR users great stereoscopic 3D content. The Science by GE channel is supposed to feature new VR content every week, going “behind the scenes” at R&D labs, for example, and will also broadcast third-party science immersions.
You don’t necessarily need Samsung Gear to view GE and Reel FX’s content—the videos are also on YouTube 360 and Oculus Share.
There aren’t really all that many engineering applications for VR beyond collaborative 3D model viewing, but creating stereoscopic 360 video may prove to be a more useful application than people realize for documentation and training purposes. Though engineers like Neha Prajapat are exploring VR and real-time scanning with consumer gaming gear like the Kinect to improve the hit rate for making choices that contribute to the overall optimization of a factory design layout, we’re still waiting to see what engineers can really do with virtual reality..