FEA Adaptation in VR Environment
FEA Adaptation in VR Environment
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Project Background
Project Background
I work under Dr. Hartl at the MAESTRO Lab who teaches Aerospace Structural Design, a senior-level elective course. In this class, he employs VR technology to showcase Linear and Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models. While this method helps students better understand how objects react under real-world conditions, there were notable limitations. Students could view the models but could not orient or scale them. Additionally, models had to be viewed one at a time, necessitating the constant wearing and removal of the VR headset to adjust the models through the Unity Game Engine. Moreover, the Abaqus file type was incompatible with Unity, requiring multiple file conversions. To streamline this tedious process, I was tasked to automate most if not all of it, enabling anyone with no prior knowledge of Unity or VR to easily view all the models in a VR environment with minimal effort.
Project Overview
Project Overview
During the summer of 2024, under Dr. Hartl's guidance, I embarked on adapting FEA models into a VR environment. The initial phase was challenging as I started working with the outdated HTC VIVE system without in-lab guidance. This required extensive research to learn Unity and its compatibilities with the VIVE, as well as learning C# to write the necessary code. After a month of struggle, I discovered that the lab had a Meta Oculus Quest 2, which offered modern VR technology and better compatibility with Unity. This timely switch allowed me to transfer a month's worth of progress from the VIVE to the Oculus in just one day.
Models Import and Arrange.mp4After transitioning to the Oculus headset, I developed a gallery setup to showcase all the FEA models within one scene and created a GUI to import and arrange the models, as demonstrated in the accompanying video (using non-FEA models). This involved writing hundreds of lines of C# code to enable a UI/Menu that hovers over the student's hand, allowing them to grab distant objects, orient, and scale them, and reset the scene. To date, I have automated approximately 70% of the project and am currently working on implementing animations of the FEA models and automating file type conversions.
This project has been both challenging and immensely rewarding. Despite the initial difficulties with the VIVE system, I persisted and am nearing the completion of the project. This experience has not only been a valuable learning opportunity but also an impressive first research endeavor for me.
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