A practical, proven scenario for enterprise ROI with 3D tools-Original post www.thinkbalm.com

[G2 Proto]

As a former Test Engineer at a well known aerospace firm where I worked before forming G2 with my wife Robin I had the opportunity to develop applications and processes that ultimately improved our factories throughput and hence the bottom line was also improved. I have several cases to cite in this forum the first of which started with my initial job which was electrical test of components, the final step before shipping product.

Using software the called HPVEE now AgilentVEE for Data Aquisition and Capture from practically any electronic device with a data port and data visualization applications such as Excel with 3D abilities and Visual Numerics PVWave I initially started capturing data from my laboratories shiny new HP 8510C Vector Network Analyzer.

When I arrived the only way we could produce performance results for each part was to use an XY plotter to make paper archives. Testing thousands of parts at a time made this a massive bottleneck and being paper based we had no ability to analyze data for trend analysis or performance mean, average etc.

Using HPVEE I was able to have a Windows based PC connect via the GPIB bus to the 8510C VNA and was not only able to create a GUI on the PC for the front panel dials and buttons but also automate the calibration and testing sequence. In addition I was able to pull performance data from the hardware and send it to Excel for display in various charts and graphs but also to PV Wave for in depth analysis.

How this all relates to Immersive Internet technologies began when we started using 3D models of the parts we designed and built in Solidworks and AutoCAD 3D modeling programs with performance data overlaid along the length of the component showing in accuracy of picometers where the faults lay along the parts inner components. Imagine a guided 3D tour of an Boeing jet, for example, in 3D similar to things done in Second Life and OpenSim but now during the tour imagine in a Matrix style asking the tour group to "climb inside" the electrical system for a peek. See the image below for a G2 modeled component.



This is exactly where we had success but at the time we had no persitent, web based worlds to take this concept from our internal systems and allow clients and engineers worldwide to experience it from anywhere worldwide. As we moved through the factory connecting to assembly line drop gauges and CNC Milling machines and even simple logs of where parts were in the assembly and testing process we began to think a 3D model of the factory could be built allowing our team of 2 "expediters", or people who had to find the parts for clients physically in our factory, to easily track parts visually one day even letting clients into this virtual factory to check out where their parts were at anytime.

In addition links could be embedded in this virtual factory to allow engineers not only to see, for example, the parts they need were in say the environmental test chambers or electrical test or QA and also pull up performance data stored in Excel so they could see if parts were performing as expected. Daily histograms and other data was collected allowing for insight into what exactly was happening statistically with job lots for engineering, QA, shipping and others to track with ease internally.

We were able to save precious engineering resources as well because the Excel data had the ability to allow our clients at Raytheon, Hughes, Lockheed Martin and other tech giants to add their own "limit lines" over the data plots to see if a certain part would work accordning to a different specification without having to call our engineering team, have me locate those parts and replot and mail the data. They also could review our 3D models for cutaway views of the critical internal workings.

Eventually we were tasked with modeling parts to retrain employees on proper assembly techniques, educate sales and engineering teams worldwide and created animations that were used at tradeshows with the only complaint no one would leave the booth to allow others to view them. We even saved our firm from a major governement inspection by using 3D to show how we understood the problem with our parts and had retarined assemblers on proper techniques. This was saved to CD and mailed to the upset client who then backed off immediately upon seeing the level of concern we had shown. This got Robin and I thinking we could combine all these implmentations and future ideas if we had a 3D virtual world to display them in online. We could train, educate and collaborate in a new way no one had ever thought of before.

At this point we started G2 and while we continued with Data Aquisition and Control such as our Fuel Probes located throughout Florida( http://wirelessmonitoring.centeron.net/ ) we deployed for a client we only recently have been able to use Second Life and OpenSim to investigate our ultimate concept of a virtualized factories and tradeshows and similar educational goals. As such it is in this forum I will illustrate various aspects of proven 3D ROI in collaboration and education and also pontificate about even higher levels of enterprise use of immersive mediums.

We are in fact building a factory to illustrate this concept on our R&D grid www.reactiongrid.com . We will use Agilent VEE and Robotics Studio from Microsoft to collect data from real world machines and data sources and pull them in world as we do now on Microsoft Island in Second Life with our MSSQL Database driven 3D calendar that also feeds www.sldnug.net and soon our OpenSim grids with event data from one common source.

G2 believes we are among many firms looking to reinvent what virtual worlds can do and introduce enterprise level tools for managing them on a level never before seen. Nobody is tougher on ROI than the aerospace industry where the lowest bidder rules so to have had amazing success there overnight with the combination of data capture, product demonstration and performance data visualization in 3D compels us to move forward.

I look forward to hearing my peers at ThinkBalm contribute their own ROI based concepts and proven cases to help enlighten us all to the true abilities of these incredible new immersive tools.

Kyle aka G2 Proto in Second Life

[G2 Proto]

Yes we originally looked into engines like Quake and Unreal but the pricing at the time was incredibly high. Luckily we have a great choice of virtual worlds now so the time to begin reinventing the wheel is at hand! Thanks for the feedback!

[AC]

Very interesting stuff. This is the first I've heard of virtual worlds being used for this kind of manufacturing visualisation.