This document discusses a virtual reality system that allows users to walk freely in a virtual factory even when physically located in a smaller room. It uses redirected walking techniques like translation gain and curvature gain to manipulate camera movement and keep users within physical boundaries. The system aims to enable designers, planners, and employees to evaluate factory designs through natural walking before anything is built. It also explores interaction methods like capturing screenshots, teleporting, and gradual translation to facilitate navigation and commenting. In conclusion, the system provides a way for users to walk through and analyze virtual factories without limitations of physical space.

1. Projekt DomainZieleTechnikAblauf und Bewertung
Real walking in virtual environment for
factory planning and evaluation
M.S. Riadh Dhaoui
Faculty of Neuroinformatics, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
04.06.2018, Bochum

2. Hintergrund
Redirected walking
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
is to allow users to walk in virtual worlds which are
of greater dimensions than the real-world space
they walk in.
The idea behind RDW is to manipulate the
camera movement through the VE compared
to the user’s tracked real movements.
Redirected Walking (RDW) is a technique that
allows exploring immersive virtual environments
by real walking in a small physical room.
Souce:Velocity-Dependent dynamic curvature
gain for redirected walking.pdf

3. Introduction
Inventing a new tool for
factory planning and
assessment based on
virtual reality
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Aims
Is enabling designers,
planning professionals
and employees to move
natural and free in a
virtual factory
Designs have to be
checked before anything
can be realized
Topic

4. Redirected techniques and control
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
RDW employs so-called redirection techniques (RETs) to manipulate the
user's real world trajectory in such a way that he remains within the
boundaries of the physical room.

5. Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Translation gain: scaling of the user’s translational movement the user’s
speed in the virtual environment is increased or decreased
Rotation gain: scaling of the user’s rotational movements like head turns
or full body turns
Curvature gain: rotation that can be added when a user is walking on a
straight line
Curvature gain: tricking the user’s spatial memory or perception by using
specialized virtual environments or modifications thereof. E.g. with self-
overlapping geometries
Rest: stop a user and instruct him to perform some activity so that he can
be reoriented or repositioned
Redirected techniques and control

6. Virtual reality system for real walking
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Hardware (VR) Oculus Open Sources DK2 HMD:
(a) : A user walking through a virtual
factory
Fig.2.VR system composed of a HMD, tracking system, backpack, and a notebook
(b) : Standing user using a gamepad for
interacting with the virtual environment

7. Virtual reality system for real walking
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Software (VR) Unity3D Game engine:
is runs an RDW controller
applies redirection
forwards this data to a rendering engine.
Fig 3.Data flow for the VR system
Source: unity3d.com

8. Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Redirection
techniques
Rotation
gain (+)
Translation
gain (0)
Architectur
al illusions
(-) Resets
(++)
Other
navigation
metaphors
Curvature
gain (++)
RDW for walking in V-factory
Fig.4 .Applicability of redirection
techniques to factory planning.
(++) (+) : well applicable
(0) : applicability depends on task
(-) : not applicable

9. Navigation methods in Virtual factories
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Other Navigation
metaphors
teleporting
flying
Gradual
translation

10. Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
• Flying : Mouse, joystick, or keyboard are the most known navigation
metaphors for desktop systems
Manual interaction to move the viewpoint through the virtual
environment
Gradual translation : can be realized with objects Transport a user
in the virtual environment
Teleporting : very useful metaphors for quickly moving from one
discrete location to another
Navigation methods in Virtual factories

11. Factory planning and interaction
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Screen-shot of an example scene from a virtual factory
showing a shop floor with manufacturing machines.
Tubes and cable channels are also visible.

12. Factory planning and interaction
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
(a)The user can store his current view (full field of view) like a
screenshot and/or his current location and orientation
(b) The user manually selects picture mode to place a 3D photo frame.
He can then move freely to zoom before recording the final
screenshot including his current location and orientation.
Screen-shot of a the user’s view on a problematic area in the virtual factory

13. Factory planning and interaction
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Combination of production planning and MTM, which results in a reuse of existing data.
Optimization of a manufacturing layout such as geometry or workers’ movements (MTM), while
always working on the same data set.
Enhancement of the existing MTM by new capabilities such as walking.
Perception of distances and sizes by the integration of human locomotion as interaction
modality with the virtual environment.
Automatic capturing of a worker’s walking trajectories together with the corresponding temporal
information.
Reuse of data from MTM and production planning for other tasks such training and education.

14. Conclusion
Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
 This system gives designers, planning experts, and work-forces the ability
to walk naturally and freely within a virtual factory before anything is built.
 With this system users can walk freely through virtual factories even
if they are physically located in a much smaller room.
 Other methods show that users are able to travel over large distances
in virtual factory when walking has in this case no sense.
 A few methods have been shown how users can record or comment
features in the virtual factory for later discussions or later visits.

15. Ingenieurinformatik 04.06.2018 | Riadh Dhaoui 2
Thanks for your
attention