Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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Validation of Immersive Design Parameters in Driving Simulation Environments

2021 , Lyga, Yvonne , Lau, Merle , Brandenburg, Elisabeth , Stark, Rainer

Driving simulators are used for the prospective validation of technical systems in the automotive sector. The design of simulation environments can affect drivers and should be considered in investigations of driver-vehicle interactions. The aim of this research is to minimize the gap between driving simulators and real car studies by integrating immersive parameters into simulated driving environments. Stereoscopy, surround sound and motion feedback were analyzed with regard to driver behavior and experience and were then compared to data of a real drive from a previous investigation. The authors conducted a study with N = 48 participants performing a dual-task scenario in a driving simulator. Results reveal significant effects of immersive design parameters on gaze behavior and mental workload. Findings provide guidance for an efficient and cost-effective development of driving simulation environments.

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Modular virtual reality to enable efficient user studies for autonomous driving

2020 , Konkol, Kathrin , Brandenburg, Elisabeth , Stark, Rainer

Autonomous driving vehicles use a variety of means to communicate with pedestrians, e.g. information displays, LED panels and sound. In order to evaluate some of those information displays with regard to their efficiency of understanding, the authors examined a set of external information types, such as images, text and animated LED panels. The use of Virtual Reality to create user studies offers a flexible and cost-effective approach for evaluation and improvement, therefore the authors chose to develop the user study as a VR application. This paper describes the ongoing work in which the study is designed and the application has been implemented but the study has not yet been carried out. The emphasis on this paper lies on the approach of planning a modular VR application that fits the needs of a multifactorial experimental layout that can adapt to changes in the study for further evaluation.

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Gestaltungsrichtlinien für die Visualisierung von Produktinformationen in der virtuellen Umgebung CAVE zur Unterstützung von Design Review Teams

2019 , Brandenburg, Elisabeth

In der Virtuellen Produktentstehung ist die neue Technologie der Virtual Reality ein breit eingesetztes Werkzeug. Insbesondere für Design Reviews bietet Virtual Reality die Absicherung des virtuellen Produktes in Originalgröße und dessen Erlebbarkeit an. Um Entscheidungen hinsichtlich Konstruktionsausprägungen in virtuellen Design Reviews zu unterstützen wird in dieser Arbeit eine geeignete Visualisierungslösung entwickelt. Mittels User Centered Design gelingt hier die Integration von notwendigen Produktmetadaten und Geometriemodell in der virtuellen Realität.

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Characterization and application of assistance systems in digital engineering

2021 , Stark, Rainer , Brandenburg, Elisabeth , Lindow, Kai

A broad range of assistance systems can be found in manufacturing practice as well as in the corresponding literature. Similarly, it can be observed that there is a growing need for and an increasing supply of assistance systems of all kinds. However, for digital manufacturing, the assistance systems are not clearly characterized. The diversity in application areas and possible uses varies and there are no possibilities for comparison. This paper addresses the topic of assistance systems and examines the various basic elements of engineering activities in terms of possible types of assistance systems based on research in manufacturing industry. Crucial aspects of assistance capabilities for engineering are elaborated and possible digital approaches are validated based on investigations in the field of aircraft engine design and assembly.

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Natural Virtual Reality User Interface to Define Assembly Sequences for Digital Human Models

2020 , Geiger, Andreas , Brandenburg, Elisabeth , Stark, Rainer

Digital human models (DHMs) are virtual representations of human beings. They are used to conduct, among other things, ergonomic assessments in factory layout planning. DHM software tools are challenging in their use and thus require a high amount of training for engineers. In this paper, we present a virtual reality (VR) application that enables engineers to work with DHMs easily. Since VR systems with head-mounted displays (HMDs) are less expensive than CAVE systems, HMDs can be integrated more extensively into the product development process. Our application provides a reality-based interface and allows users to conduct an assembly task in VR and thus to manipulate the virtual scene with their real hands. These manipulations are used as input for the DHM to simulate, on that basis, human ergonomics. Therefore, we introduce a software and hardware architecture, the VATS (virtual action tracking system). This paper furthermore presents the results of a user study in which the VATS was compared to the existing WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer) interface. The results show that the VATS system enables users to conduct tasks in a significantly faster way.

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Portable hands-free process assistant for gas turbine maintenance

2016 , Brandenburg, Elisabeth , Woll, Robert , Stark, Rainer

This paper presents how smart glasses and voice commands can be used for improving the maintenance process of industrial gas turbines. It presents the process of inspecting a gas turbine's combustion chamber and how it is currently performed using a set of paper-based documents. In order to improve this process, a portable hands-free process assistance system has been conceived. In the following, it will be presented how the approach of user-centered design and the method of paper prototyping have been successfully applied in order to design a user interface and a corresponding workflow model that describes the possible interaction patterns between the user and the interface. The presented evaluation of these results suggests that the assistance system could help the user by rendering multiple manual activities obsolete, thus allowing him to work hands-free and to save time for generating protocols.

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How Pedestrians Perceive Autonomous Buses: Evaluating Visual Signals

2021 , Brandenburg, Elisabeth , Kozachek, Diana , Konkol, Kathrin , Woelfel, Christiane , Geiger, Andreas , Stark, Rainer

With the deployment of autonomous buses, sophisticated technological systems are entering our daily lives and their signals are becoming a crucial factor in human-machine interaction. The successful implementation of visual signals requires a well-researched human-centred design as a key component for the new transportation system. The autonomous vehicle we investigated in this study uses a variety of these: Icons, LED panels and text. We conducted a user study with 45 participants in a virtual reality environment in which four recurring communication scenarios between an autonomous driving bus and its potential passengers had to be correctly interpreted. For our four scenarios, efficiency and comprehension of each visual signal combination was measured to evaluate performance on different types of visual information. The results show that new visualization concepts such as LED panels lead to highly variable efficiency and comprehension, while text or icons were well ac cepted. In summary, the authors of this paper present the most efficient combinations of visual signals for four reality scenarios.

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Increasing resource efficiency with an engineering decision support system for comparison of product design variants

2019 , Buchert, Tom , Ko, Nathanael , Graf, Roberta , Vollmer, Thomas , Alkhayat, Moritz , Brandenburg, Elisabeth , Stark, Rainer , Klocke, Fritz , Leistner, Philip , Schleifenbaum, Johannes Henrich

The development of sustainable and resource-efficient products requires consideration of multiple design targets concerning the whole product life cycle. Taking these factors into account leads to complex decision situations with conflicting targets and trade-offs. To support design engineers in these situations an Engineering Decision Support System (EDSS) has been developed. In this article, the overall concept of the EDSS is presented. Furthermore, one function of the EDSS to assist a systematic comparison of product variants is introduced in detail. It is based on combining an existing PLM solutions (in particular Siemens Teamcenter 11/Siemens NX9) and software for Life Cycle Assessment (GaBi 7). Beyond a proof of concept for information exchange between both systems a methodology is presented which enables design engineers to systematically assess and select multiple product variants based on their resource utilization. The approach is complemented with a comprehensive case study for different design options of a core slide. In the scope of this study, variations of geometry (solid vs. hollow design), materials (hot-working steel vs. nickel-based superalloy) and manufacturing processes (laser metal deposition vs. milling) were considered. Furthermore, a usability study of the decision support tool is shown.

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