Project Admin and Milestones

Project Description

The Dynamic Red All-sky Monitoring Survey telescope (DREAMS) is an automated sky-scanning a telescope that is due to be installed at Siding Spring Observatory in the near future. The goal of this project is to create a virtual reality version (VR) of the telescope for public outreach and educational purposes. The client of this project is Dr. Tony Travouillon from the ANU Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics. The project team consists of 5 ANU students from undergrad and postgrad that were enrolled in various Tech Launcher programs.

General requirements

The point below are the requirements from the client.

• Environment requirement: Unity

• Gear requirement: Oculus Quest

Project deliverables and tasks

The aim of this project is to create a VR experience of the DREAMS telescope, the experience shall include the telescope itself, the facility where the telescope is located, the terrain around the facility, and the sky. The end product should be operatable in the Oculus Quest VR headset. The progress of the project will be tracked by internal assessment and reviews.

There are several tasks being identified during the initial planning stage of the project, these are;

• Reworking of existing CAD models (March 8 – March 25)

• Creating the 3D assets (March 15 – April 20)

• Importing of the assets into Unity (March 18 – March 26)

• The control scheme of the VR headset (March 8 – March 18)

• Implementing of interaction (April 5 – April 20)

• Performance optimization & testing (April 25 – May 14)

• Documentation

• Stretch goal – phone app for ease of access (if possible)

For reworking of the 3D model, the project team shall simplify the existing CAD models of the telescope, so that the model of the telescope can be work into the VR environment without a performance penalty. The estimate hours of completion are 150 hours, this includes tweaking at the later stage of development. The resource being used at this stage of development is 3D modelling software which will be acquired by student licensing. The dependency of this part of the project is the CAD model of the telescope which shall be provided by the client.

For the creation of the 3D assets, the project team shall create the 3D models of the facility where the telescope will be located, the terrain surrounding the facility, and the sky, this task is identified because of the necessity of creating an immersive environment for the end-user. The estimate hours taken by this process will be around 350 hours, which also include tweaking at the later stage of development. The resource being used at this stage is the same as the reworking stage. The dependency of this stage is external data such as satellite height map and picture of the facility.

For the importing of assets into the Unity game engine, the project team shall format the assets mentioned above so that it can be used in the VR environment. The estimate working hours are 70 hours. The resource used in this stage shall be entirely created or modified by the project team. The dependency of this task will be the tasks mentioned above.

For control scheme of the VR headset, the project team shall create an easy-to-use control scheme for the experience. The estimate working hours are 90 hours, this will also include later tweaking. The resource being used will be the VR headset and Unity engine with C#. No dependency will be required.

For implementing of interaction, various dynamic features such as a day/night cycle, animated elements, and object collision will be added so that a more immersive experience can be created. The estimate hours of work are 130 hours. The resource being used will be everything that the project team create previously. The dependency will be all of the tasks above.

For performance optimization, the project team shall optimize the performance of the product so that it can be run without creating a heavy load on the hardware. The estimate working hours will be around 160 hours.

For documentation, the project team shall provide clear documentation so later maintainer can maintain the project effortlessly.

As a stretch goal, the project team may port the project to other platforms such as Oculus rift and potentially Android/IOS for accessing a larger userbase. This will only be attempted if all other parts of the project are completed.

Acceptance standards

Around the end date of each milestone, the client should review the result of each milestone so the direction of the project will be the same as the client’s expectation.

Delivery Schedule

1. Reworking of the CAD model (March 25)

2. Creating the 3D assets (April 20)

3. Importing of the assets (March 26)

4. Control scheme of the VR headset (March 18)

5. Implementing interaction (April 20)

6. Performance optimization & testing (May 14)

Constraints

• Copyrights – not to violate copyright laws from assets

• Government regulation - must comply when publishing

Stakeholder and Stakeholder Expectations

• Dr. Tony Travouillon: outreach and exposure for astronomy projects

• Educational institutions: a free tool for learning astronomy & engineering, in an accessible form

• Oculus users: drives public interest in scientific projects

• Engineers: visualize the engineering project clearly

• Researcher: a clear idea of what to expect when on site

Team Members

• Lan Xue: u7078355

• Chia-Fu Hsu: u6791558

• Tim James: u6947396

• Jianan Wu: u7076110

• Siqi Ran: u7025226

Client

Tony Travouillon