Posts Tagged ‘virtual reality’

Ryan Wheeler, engineer in materials and processes at Rockwell Collins, manipulates a Wii remote as he demonstrates a virtual reality exercise used to develop manufacturing and maintenance processes. The images projected behind him on the screen are the images he is seeing in his head-mounted display / Gazette photo by Mark Tade

By Maggie Mills
For Gazette Special Sections

Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to mix work and play in a productive and stimulating environment. For employees who work in the Advanced Manufacturing Simulation Lab at Rockwell Collins, innovative technology not only advances business – it also makes work a lot more fun.

Jack Harris, director of advanced manufacturing technology, describes the lab as one that uses virtual reality and a number of other types of simulations to create virtual product models and even simulate their use for testing.  The ability to do all of this in “virtual space” allows employees to develop, implement and debug projects before they are released, which can be a great advantage for the company.

The lab’s technology can certainly be described as futuristic, but according to Harris, the idea came about three years ago, when gaming technologies advanced to a point where using them for business just made sense.  The application of the technology, for Rockwell Collins, includes such techniques as having assembly operators use a Nintendo Wii remote control to navigate a virtual assembly of a product.

“We’re hoping to integrate less costly solutions, like the Wii controllers, to replace the existing more expensive equipment we have now so that we’re able to have cost effective multiple extensions of the lab throughout the company,” Harris said.

The more budget-friendly gaming technology, coupled with cutting-edge applications, is exactly what Harris believes will appeal to the next generation of professionals. “They’re a gaming generation. They play with this technology everyday and they can walk into our labs, pick up the equipment, and work with it right away,” he said. “This is such a familiar technology for them, so the skills are already there.”

Story courtesy: The Gazette, National Engineers Week Special Section, 2009