SusCon (Sustainable Shipbuilding Concepts) project focused on creating sustainability based value in shipbuilding. One part of this project was Virtual Reality based design reviews of cruise ship interiors.
New plans and drawings are needed for each ship, because ships are usually unique. But plans are not accepted based on mere drawings. Before building anything, the ship’s owner wants to see mock-up models of interior parts. Mock-ups give an idea of the materials and the quality of the work, and in mock-up reviews, changes to the plans can be made. But physical cannot give an overall picture of an entire area in the ship.
In Virtual Reality (VR), we can observe three-dimensional models in real size, and from any direction. The same models can be used for engineering and design reviews. A review meeting can be organized remotely in VR, involving people from anywhere. The persons in the VR gathering appear as cartoon-like avatars. Participants can move freely in VR environment and talk to each other as if they were actually gathered together. Users can manipulate virtual models in VR, hiding parts of the model, allowing inside structures to be seen, and changing the materials on the surfaces.
When physical mock-ups represent only small parts of the whole, larger interior areas can be displayed in VR. Virtual reality offers new opportunities for ship design and construction. It facilitates dialogue between designers, builders and customers.
Publications about the research done in SusCon can be found here: http://ar.utu.fi/publications
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