A Multi-view and Multi-interaction System for Digital-mock up’s collaborative environment

Abstract

The current industrial PLM tool generally relies on Concurrent Engineering (CE), which involves conducting product design and manufacturing stages in parallel and integrating technical data for sharing among different experts in parallel. Various experts use domain-specific software to produce various data. This package of data is usually called Digital mock-up (DMU), as well as Building Information Model (BIM) in architectural engineering. For sharing the DMU data, many works have been done to improve the interoperability among the engineering software and among the models in domains of mechanical design and eco-design. However, the computer-human interaction (CHI) currently used in the context of CE project reviews is not optimized to enhance the interoperability among various experts of different domains. Here the CHI concerns both complex DMU visualization and multi-users interaction. Since the DMU has its multiple representations according to involved domains, therefore when various experts need to work together on the DMU they may prefer their own point-of-view on the DMU and proper manner to interact with the DMU.With the development of 3D visualization and virtual reality CHI technology, it is possible to devise more intuitive tools and methods to enhance the interoperability of collaboration among experts both in multi-view and multi-interaction for co-located synchronous collaborative design activities. In this paper, we discuss the different approaches of displaying multiple point-of-views of DMU and multiple interactions with DMU in the context of 3D visualization, virtual reality and augmented reality. A co-located collaborative environment of CHI supporting system is proposed. This collaborative environment allows the experts to see respectively the multiple point-of-view of the DMU in front of a unique display system and to interact with the DMU in using different metaphors according to their specific needs. This could be used to assist collaborative design during project review where some decision on product design solution should be made.