BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. Field

The present disclosure relates generally to managing an object and, in particular, to managing the design of an object in an immersive environment.

2. Background

Computer-aided design (CAD) software is often used in creating, modifying, or analyzing a design for an object. The object may be, for example, an aircraft, a flight deck, a landing gear system, an engine housing, or some other suitable object.

A designer may generate a computer-aided design of an object such as the flight deck of an aircraft using specifications, preliminary drawings, and other input. The computer-aided design is contained in a model of the object.

An analysis of the design may be performed. For example, an engineer may perform a finite element analysis on the design of the flight deck. The finite element analysis may be used to determine how the object will handle stress, temperatures, and other environmental factors.

Another person, an ergonomic specialist, may analyze the model with respect to ergonomics. For example, the person may review the human factors in the design of the flight deck to determine whether a pilot may interact efficiently with different components in the flight deck.

For example, the ergonomic specialist may review the dimensions for parts of the flight deck such as a seat, a flight stick, switches, and other parts that a pilot may interact with in the flight deck. The review of these dimensions may be used to determine whether sufficient ergonomics are present in the design of the flight deck to perform operations for the aircraft. The dimensions may also be reviewed to determine whether a desired level of comfort would be present for the flight of the aircraft. In some cases, the creation of some parts of the flight deck may be needed for the ergonomic analysis.

The engineer and the ergonomic specialist send feedback to the designer. The feedback may be a report sent by email or a hard copy that may be sent by regular mail or overnight delivery.

The designer may then make changes to the model of the object using the feedback. Further testing and analysis may be performed and further modifications to the model may be made in this manner until the flight deck has a desired level of performance.

This type of process, however, involves multiple people interacting with each other and may take more time than desired to perform iterations in testing, analysis, and modifying design changes. For example, scheduling between the designer, the engineer, and the ergonomic specialist to analyze and modify the design may take more time than desired. Also, the engineer may need to schedule a time to run the finite element analysis on the model of the flight deck.

The ergonomic specialist may not need the results of the finite element analysis, but may have other reviews for other designs in models of other objects to perform prior to evaluating the design for the flight deck. The analysis performed by the ergonomic specialist may require fabrication of physical parts of the flight deck as needed. Also, each time a change in the model occurs, additional parts may be fabricated to evaluate the change in the model. The fabrication of the parts for the analysis also may take more time and expense than desired.

Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues. For example, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that overcome a technical problem with managing design changes in models of objects.

SUMMARY

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides an object management system comprising a model manager that creates an avatar representing a human operator; places the avatar in a three-dimensional environment with a model of an object; displays the three-dimensional environment with the model of the object and the avatar from a viewpoint relative to the avatar on a display system; and identifies an interaction between the avatar and the model of the object in real time using information about motions of the human operator detected in real time from a motion capture system. The interaction changes a group of dimensions in the model of the object. The object management system also displays the interaction between the avatar and the model of the object in the three-dimensional environment on the display system, enabling design changes in the model of the object made by a human operator.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure provides an aircraft design system comprising a motion capture system and a model manager. The motion capture system detects motions of a human operator and generates information about the motions. The model manager creates an avatar representing the human operator; places the avatar in a three-dimensional environment with a model of an aircraft; displays the three-dimensional environment with the model and the avatar from a viewpoint relative to the avatar on a display system viewable by the human operator; identifies an interaction between the avatar and the model of the aircraft in real time that changes a group of dimensions in the model of the aircraft using the information about the motions of the human operator detected in real time; displays the model of an object with a change in the group of dimensions in the model of the aircraft in the three-dimensional environment on the display system; and updates a file storing the model of the aircraft that reflects the change in the group of dimensions in the model of the aircraft, enabling design changes in the model of the aircraft made by the human operator.

Yet another embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for managing an object. A three-dimensional environment with a model of the object and an avatar representing a human operator from a viewpoint relative to the avatar is displayed on a display system. A motion of the human operator is detected. An interaction between the avatar and the model of the object is identified in real time using information about motions of the human operator that are detected in real time. The interaction changes a group of dimensions in the model of the object. Further, the interaction between the avatar and the model of the object in the three-dimensional environment is displayed on the display system, enabling design changes in the model of the object made by the human operator.

The features and functions can be achieved independently in various embodiments of the present disclosure or may be combined in yet other embodiments in which further details can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings.

