Engineering Concept Design and Assembly in VR Program, Year 1

This effort will define a domain agnostic database for specifying a set of physical, off-the-shelf, plug and play parts (with reduced detail shape/CAD files). The database will include metadata, such as detailed dimensions, volume, mass, power requirement, temperature limits, etc. A VR App tool (Beta version) will be developed which allows designers to quickly realize a collaborative, model-based VR engineering environment for prototyping, assembly mockup, and visualizations for pre-phase A work. Related GSFC IRAD-supported efforts which are complementary to this CIF effort could be combined to enable integration of live hardware telemetry mnemonics and 3D design to explore potential uses of VR/AR in hardware integration and test. For example, imagine tagging the parts inside the 3D model with changing colors (red, green, yellow) as status telemetry is received for those parts. By slowing playing through the telemetry, an engineer could intuitively see the cascading timeline of failures or power surges to diagnose problems in I&T or in operations (such as thermal control).

This proposal, in a strategic partnership with University of Maryland (UMD) and Bowie State University (BSU), creates a collaborative virtual reality (VR) tool for concept design and assembly in VR from a database of pre-defined "parts". This will enable engineers and scientists to work in a shared VR environment, as part of a concept design process. This capability is currently completely missing at NASA. Assembly mockups and design in VR/AR will save enormously by testing designs early in virtual space, without actually having to manufacture parts or even 3D print objects. Additionally, a scenario/concept demonstration will be worked in collaboration with the GSFC's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) project to validate the use of the VR tool.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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