Virtual prototyping used as validation tool in automotive design

Virtual prototyping (VP) is more commonly used alternative to rapid prototyping (RP) to validate products without substantial investments. This article covers recent advancements in VP technologies to accommodate kinematics and use them to evaluate functional aspects of automotive designs. Traditionally to validate effective function of the product, prototypes were constructed in the earlier stages of design. These prototypes were used to validate design functions of new products. Subsequently products were launched for production runs after corrections were made for issues found during prototyping stages. VP techniques use advancements in software tools to mimic the physical prototyping of product. The new advancements of using function parameters in soft tools added new paradigm in VP techniques. Kinematics with function parameters such as load conditions, motions are added using force (F) and motion (M) functions in design scenario. Kinematics used in virtual environment uses positions, velocity, acceleration, inertial forces, and power requirements, of all the components in mechanisms to recreate virtual effect on the models. Comprehensive engineering designs are produced reducing product design cycle by saving time, costs in set ups and manufacturing the physical prototypes. This extension of virtual design process for physical sampling is unique and was developed, implemented successfully in automotive design application. In this paper experimental study conducted on a car carrier, which is developed under authors responsibility has been used to illustrate VP techniques.

[1]  Pan Wen Wei,et al.  Conceptual design system in a Web-based virtual interactive environment for product development , 2006 .

[2]  T. J. Nye,et al.  Automated Optimal Design for Manufacturability of Sheet/Plate Assemblies , 2005 .

[3]  David W. Rosen,et al.  A virtual prototyping approach to product disassembly reasoning , 1997, Comput. Aided Des..

[4]  Rajit Gadh,et al.  Internet-based collaborative product design with assembly features and virtual design spaces , 2001, Comput. Aided Des..

[5]  S. Postle,et al.  Product Innovation Management , 1990 .

[6]  Wynne Hsu,et al.  Current research in the conceptual design of mechanical products , 1998, Comput. Aided Des..

[7]  Kevin W. Lyons,et al.  Virtual assembly using virtual reality techniques , 1997, Comput. Aided Des..

[8]  Bo Hu Li,et al.  VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING ENGINEERING FOR COMPLEX PRODUCT , 2001 .

[9]  Jianxin Jiao,et al.  Virtual prototyping for customized product development , 1997 .

[10]  V. Srinivasan,et al.  The Predictive Power of Internet‐Based Product Concept Testing Using Visual Depiction and Animation , 2000 .

[11]  J Salvage.  Better by design. , 2001, Nursing times.

[12]  Jarek Rossignac,et al.  Computing and visualizing pose-interpolating 3D motions , 2001, Comput. Aided Des..

[13]  Jorge Angeles,et al.  PROOF COPY 022204JMD The Design of a Novel Pure-Rolling Transmission to Convert Rotational into Translational Motion , 2002 .

[14]  Ludovico Consano,et al.  An optimized transport concept for tractor-semitrailer combination , 2008 .

[15]  L. M. CAMARINHA-MATOS,et al.  Towards an architecture for virtual enterprises , 1998, J. Intell. Manuf..

[16]  H. J. Bullinger,et al.  Virtual assembly planning , 2000 .

[17]  Gabriel Zachmann,et al.  Virtual reality as a tool for verification of assembly and maintenance processes , 1999, Comput. Graph..

[18]  K. L. Mak,et al.  A virtual design platform for interactive product design and visualization , 2003 .

[19]  Rajit Gadh,et al.  Collaborative virtual prototyping of product assemblies over the Internet , 2002, Comput. Aided Des..

[20]  Yuh-Min Chen,et al.  Design and implementation of a collaborative engineering information system for allied concurrent engineering , 2000, Int. J. Comput. Integr. Manuf..

[21]  E. Dahan,et al.  The predictive power of internet-based product concept testing using visual depiction and animation , 2000 .

[22]  Weiming Shen,et al.  Collaborative conceptual design - state of the art and future trends , 2002, Comput. Aided Des..

[23]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  Multimedia Learning , 2001, Visible Learning Guide to Student Achievement.

[24]  Clifford Winston,et al.  Costs, Technology and Productivity in the U. S. Automobile Industry , 1983 .

[25]  Yong Wang,et al.  VADE: A Virtual Assembly Design Environment , 1999, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[26]  Ken Wallace,et al.  Better by design , 1989 .

[27]  Luciana D'Adderio,et al.  Crafting the virtual prototype: how firms integrate knowledge and capabilities across organisational boundaries☆ , 2001 .

[28]  Rajit Gadh,et al.  Selective disassembly for virtual prototyping as applied to de-manufacturing , 1999 .