Constructing virtual environments for manufacturing simulation

Virtual environments (VE) are becoming an important tool for simulating manufacturing systems. A problem in their adoption is the lack of an easy and effective approach to building large and complex virtual environments that are required by many manufacturing simulation tasks. This paper reports on research into this problem and presents a novel approach - domain-analysis-based top-down construction - to constructing complex virtual manufacturing environments. Based on this approach, a software system is designed and implemented to provide easy-to-use and flexible tools that enable users to construct virtual environments rapidly and with minimum modelling effort.