How virtual reality is transforming manufacturing for sports cars скачать в хорошем качестве

How virtual reality is transforming manufacturing for sports cars

(20 Apr 2017) LEADIN: Virtual reality no longer a gaming room novelty, it's now a vital technology which is helping industry build more efficiently, quickly and cheaply according to sports car maker McLaren. The company is among hundreds showing how the new tech is changing the face of manufacturing at the Virtual Reality Show in London STORYLINE: We'd all love a gleaming sports car like this, but getting any car model to this point is long and costly process, especially with a high end McLaren. By comparison this virtual reality car frame, or buck doesn't look very impressive, but the technology is now so important it's used in product development in companies like McLaren every day. This model is being used to make the new cars being rolled out at the big automotive shows around the world, the company first started using the technology ten years ago. Mike Rosam who leads on technology, strategy and innovation at McLaren Automotive explains how VR is used to create the perfect interior. He says: "Put the head set on we've got a high end gaming machine over there, and as soon as you have it on you can see that I'm fully immersed inside the cabin." Rosam adds: "We're on a sea road here I can see the steering wheel in front of me, I've got the inside of the trim here, I've got the doors closed I can see the rear view mirror and everything's easily reachable." The mission of most high end car makers is to get the design right, first time for each of their customers By 2020 McLaren expect technology to boost manufacturing of this car to around five thousand a year. There's a lot of choices to be made about the development of safety, the way the car functions. According to Rosam VR is enabling the company make hundreds of choices with less risk and it improves the lead time to market because the development phase is so much shorter and reduces costs. He says: "Virtual reality is an immersive experience you can sit in this buck which doesn't look much and you can put the headset on and you can experience the full environment as if it were a real production car. That means that a designer can look at switches, they can look and grab the steering wheel, they can feel where the accelerator pedals are, they can look at the layout of the human machine interface the displays and they can start to make very informed decisions about positions of buttons and switches and the ergonomics and the styling and the way parts are mating and the way different colours work together." VR is also going to be a game changer in the showroom. Rosam says: "So when you walk into a showroom you want a very visceral experience and often when you go to a showroom they don't have the right colour or the right trim combination, with virtual reality you can experience your vehicle in your colour with your trim right there and then. And you can also then experience the vehicle whilst your waiting for it, so you can pop back to the showroom and sit in your car again. You can have the configuration on your desktop at home so if you have a VR kit at home, you could go back and carry on experiencing your vehicle whilst you're waiting for it to be delivered." It's not all high end manufacturers that are going for the technology. The Virtual Reality Show is packed with startup companies too. Among the visitors here is Fiona Kilkelly who is the head of immersion technology for the Knowledge Transfer Network, an agency developed to expand all the VR and AR technologies. The show continues until Saturday 22nd April. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...