Simulation data integration-based approach for motion synthesis in virtual maintenance

Immersive and non-immersive simulations have been widely adopted to improve product maintainability design based on virtual maintenance technique. On the one hand, immersive simulation shows that our body actions, especially those of the hand, are suitable for detailed operation simulation. Meanwhile, the problem associated with immersive simulation is hardware capacity as constrained by the environment. On the other hand, non-immersive simulation shows superiority in large-scale movement; however, problems, such as cumbersome operation, time-consuming labor, and inadequate precision, arise in terms of complicated and repeated operations. Considering the preceding advantages and limitations mentioned, this study presents a virtual simulation method by purposefully integrating human motion data from immersive and non-immersive simulations. We first decompose maintenance process based on common operations to determine typical types of maintenance motions. We then analyze the classified motion characters to identify a suitable simulation approach for each type of motion. Subsequently, motion data from immersive and non-immersive simulation are processed by spatial and temporary alignment. These data are further integrated by synchronous or asynchronous cooperative control for their respective simulation requirement. Lastly, we adopt interpolation to further process position and posture angle data and achieve smooth transition between adjacent simulation slices. Three cases are introduced to separately verify the feasibility of synchronous and asynchronous control and smooth transition in the method.