Design and Development of Virtual Reality System for Manufacturing Engineering Education

Abstract

The laboratories, which form an important part of engineering education, also have some disadvantages such as high initial setup costs, the need to be updated according to the developing technology and limited usage times besides many advantages. In recent years, important studies have been carried out on virtual laboratory applications, which are considered as an alternative to real laboratories. A considerable part of virtual laboratory studies is based on virtual reality technology. It is needed to perform an application to control computer numerical control (CNC) machines in computer aided manufacturing courses taught in departments such as mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering. In this study, a system developed using virtual reality technology is proposed to meet this requirement. Firstly, a virtual reality hardware set consisting of a virtual reality headset and joystick was designed. Later, a Unity-based simulation software was developed. With this software, students can see the results of different G code applications on the CNC machine. In addition to content development, the production of low-cost virtual reality hardware also is one of the features that distinguish the study.

Keywords

• virtual reality
• virtual laboratory
• cnc
• unity