As part of the KoPro-VR project, an immersive virtual collaboration environment is being developed to make product development in additive manufacturing (AM) more efficient, transparent, and quality-oriented. First, a detailed analysis of the existing AM workflow is carried out, identifying inefficiencies in communication, coordination of design variants, and manufacturability adjustments across distributed service providers. Currently, collaboration between partners in the AM value chain is mostly bilateral and sequential, which leads to time-consuming iterations and increased risk of errors. Based on this requirements analysis, KoPro-VR develops an interactive multi-user VR environment that enables joint review and adaptation of CAD product data across the entire AM process chain from design and planning to additive manufacturing and post-processing. The solution allows all stakeholders to participate simultaneously and immersively in iterative design processes.
The technical development includes the implementation of collaborative VR functionalities and their integration into real industrial product development scenarios, up to prototype manufacturing with industry partners. Parallel to the software and interface development, the project evaluates the effectiveness of VR-based collaboration using work and occupational science methodologies. This includes both formative and summative evaluation approaches over the entire project duration. Finally, the developed solution is validated with regard to technical feasibility, usability, and process efficiency improvements. Beyond additive manufacturing, the system is designed to be transferable to conventional product development processes and other domains of collaborative engineering work.
Duration: 01.01.2023 - 31.03.2026
Responsible employee: Mehar Prakash Reddy Medapati
Funding programme: This project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the ‘Future of Value Creation – Research on Production, Services and Work’ programme. BMBF Division for the Future of Work and Value Creation; Industry 4.0 (521). FKZ: 02L22B051
Project manager: Projektträger Karlsruhe (PTKA)
Project partner: Flavia IT GmbH, Hein & Oetting Feinwerktechnik, Centerline Design GmbH, Technische Universität Hamburg (TUHH), Institut für Angewandte Bautechnik (ABT) & Institut für Industrialisierung smarter Werkstoffe (ISM) [ehem. Institut für Laser- und Anlagensystemtechnik (iLAS)]
