Virtual reality (VR) has been a trend in the gaming industry for the last few years, however, its potential has been noted in the automotive industry as well. Europe, with France, Germany, and the UK in the lead, represents the second largest market for VR, while Slovenia is yet to show particular enthusiasm for the field. Potential new users in the automotive industry are reluctant to use new technology because they lack information and convincing demonstrations. For this reason, the thesis consists of two parts; in the first section an overview of VR technology is made, with an emphasis on the automotive industry, whereas the purpose of the second section is to summarise the practical development of three VR applications.
A comprehensive overview of the state of VR technologies begins with historical overview of the development of VR equipment and its structure and operation. The software section presents in detail the four subgroups of software, which can be included in the process of VR application development. The section on latency touches upon the problem of VR sickness, following by a chapter on standards explaining their significance for VR technologies. What follows is an overview of the state of VR globally, while a survey was conducted among the members of the SRIP ACS+ partnership for an estimate of the state in Slovenia. In the closing chapter, the different fields of application and examples of good practices in the automotive industry are described.
In view of the results of the survey among the Slovenian businesses, companies can be divided into three groups. Firstly, companies, which already use VR technology and will continue using it. The second group consists of companies that do not yet use VR but are ready to start investing in it, had they had the qualified personnel. Remaining are the companies, whose vision does not include VR technology. The reasons for this are mainly related to being uninformed and distrusting of VR technology.
As part of the master's thesis, three applications were developed using Unity game engine and the Valve Index HMD (head-mounted display) with corresponding Valve Index Knuckles Controllers. VR applications cover various elements in the production process:
- VR platform for workstation deployment and ergonomics evaluation,
- semi-interactive VR application around inserting bearings into the U profile using a hand press in collaboration with a robot and a CNC machine, which is an example of VR application for training,
- VR application for fire safety training.
The results of the thesis show the potential of VR in the manufacturing industry. The widespread use of VR technologies in professional settings is held back by immature hardware, meaning VR headsets are unsuitable to be worn for long periods of time. Given the rapid development of VR hardware in recent years, these drawbacks seem momentary, and it is therefore reasonable to develop quality VR content until the release of a more appropriate VR headset.
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