VADE: a Virtual Assembly Design Environment

TLDR

VADE emerged from a 1995 NIST-sponsored research and development project. The project aimed to investigate VR technologies for design and manufacturing by creating a virtual environment for assembly planning and evaluation, while examining benefits, limitations, and comparing it to automated assembly planning. The authors describe VADE’s overall architecture, key features, and usage examples, and compare it to automated assembly planning systems.

Abstract

Virtual Assembly Design Environment (VADE) resulted from a research and development project started in 1995, sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The main purpose of this project was to explore the potential and the technical challenges in using VR technologies for design and manufacturing by creating a VE for assembly planning and evaluation. In this article, we describe the overall system, the important features, and examples of using VADE. We also discuss the benefits and limitations of virtual assembly systems. In addition, we compare virtual assembly and automated assembly planning systems.