AMRC

Virtalis VR Installations at AMRC

Virtalis is proud to have two StereoWorks systems installed in AMRC’s £10 million “Rolls-Royce Factory of the Future” in Sheffield.

What is the AMRC?

The University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing, is a collaboration between world-leaders in the aerospace supply chain, key government offices and international academic institutions. AMRC’s facility is dedicated to developing the new, technology-driven solutions for materials-forming, metal-working, and castings; helping UK manufacturing to remain competitive.

Virtalis and the AMRC

Virtalis became a member of the AMRC in 2006. The AMRC and Virtalis have informally collaborated on various projects over almost a decade. Virtalis is now involved in all AMRC projects involving a simulation element.

The Advantages of VR to Manufacturers

Much of what the AMRC tries to achieve is to attempt to find simple ways to reduce waste and cost and to speed up processes to give the businesses it works with a competitive advantage. Researchers create different concept methodologies in CAD, and subsequently VR, before using their StereoWorks systems to communicate their ideas. Like Virtalis, AMRC works with all the main CAD companies, so the resultant models can be easily integrated into the companies’ current way of working. For Sandvik, the Swedish cutting tool company and partner of AMRC, the team has created an analysis using VR to compare whether using a single tool for multiple solutions or using several different tools used uniquely would be the best solution for an application. Other multi-million pound projects focus on simulated manufacturing and assembly within virtual environments.

Rab Scott, who is head of AMRC IT, explained: “We simulate as much of the process as possible in order to get it right first time. For global players like Rolls Royce, we were able to demonstrate that VR can be used as an engineering communications tool. Soon we hope to superimpose the relevant Finite Element Analysis (FEA) data on our models, compressing both the design and learning cycles and we also plan to incorporate augmented reality using Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) into some of our Framework VI research projects.”

Professor Keith Ridgway, research director and HEFCE business fellow at the AMRC, commented: “Using Virtual Reality (VR) for design reviews is a widely accepted practice, but we are using advanced visualisation techniques for analysing how composites react to the forces put on them by robots and other manufacturing techniques. Only by understanding a material’s flexibility can we begin to create a virtual assembly. Sometimes modelling in a virtual environment shows you what is not achievable and narrows down design choices, sometimes it merely confirms a design.”

AMRC’s StereoWorks Systems

AMRC’s first portable StereoWorks passive Virtual Reality (VR) system, which allows groups of people to see virtual objects and environments in 3D, has been taken all over the world.

Their latest system is a bigger, active stereo Virtalis StereoWorks configuration boasting both tracking and rear projection. It is capable of handling fantastically large CAD files which have been converted into virtual models and which can be accessed in real time, thanks to the Virtalis Visionary Cluster that powers it.

AMRC website: www.amrc.co.uk