Simulation Driven Virtual Reality:
A Framework for Large Scale Virtual Simulation
Lacey Duckworth – Ph.D. StudentFebruary 16, 2008
Tentative Committee:Dr. Strelzoff (Chair), Dr. Sulbaran,Dr. Seyfarth, Dr. Wang, Dr. Zhang
ObjectiveTo obtain your feedback on an
early version of my Ph.D. prospectus.
Form my Ph.D. committee
AgendaProblem
◦Background◦Preliminary Study◦Difficulty of Problem◦Applicable Experience
ObjectiveMethodologyExpected Results and Impact
ProblemA robust and reusable
communicationmethod does not exist to
connectexternal simulation languages
with thecompelling and accessible client-
serverVirtual Reality Environments.
Background
Creating Large Scale Virtual Simulations is very time consuming and the result is
not very reusable.
Preliminary Study
200 HoursCode is not
modular, extendable,or object oriented
Pascagoula example 46 major rigs
x 10 more complex than sample x 200 hours 96,000 hours
Why Is This So Difficult? 1Second LifeTM and all similar
client-server VR environments such as MultiverseTM and OpenSLTM were never intended for large-scale software development.
Ideal: An object-oriented language for "top-level" process rigs where all instances and specialized rigs could be easily derived.
Why Is This So Difficult? 2Computer Scientists are not Refinery
Plant Operators. Very hard to get the simulation correct from conversations and schematics.
Ideal: A high-level behavioral simulation environment in which programmers would contribute a first version and plant operators and consultants could iteratively "get the details right” largely on their own.
Example of “Communication”
Sketch received from consultant and
interpretation of the atmospheric
distillation process.
Why Is This So Difficult? 3Second Life was not intended for
large scale computations. With larger numbers of numerical processes, servers bog down and performance degrades.
Ideal: An external simulation language that could run independently on a dedicated server providing scalable performance as the size of the simulation grew.
Applicable Experience 1Our research group has a lot of
experience and success building communication bridges in and out of the environment SecondLifeTM.
Applicable Experience 2LabVIEW is a popular
Instrumentation simulation (USM has a license)
1 - Object Oriented – Hierarchal2 - Well known among Chemical Engineers3 - Reasonable performance – multi-core adaptive
ObjectiveStep1: Define a
communication language protocol schema between a simulation language and a client-server Virtual Reality Environment.
Step 2: Test the robustness of the developed communication protocol.
Step 3: Develop a generalized framework to provide reuse of the communication protocol.
Restating the ProblemA robust and reusable communication method does not exist to connect the external simulation languages with thecompelling and accessible client-server Virtual Reality Environments.
MethodologyStep 1: Define Communication Protocol
◦ Qualitative - Content Analysis Qualitative: describes a schema using flexible guidelines Content Analysis: identifies specific characteristics of a
body of materialStep 2: Test the Robustness
◦ Quantitative – Action Research Quantitative – trying to prove if theory is correct,
numerical data is collected and presented. Action Research – Did developing this software decrease
time?Step 3: Develop Reuse Framework
◦ Qualitative – Content Analysis Qualitative – describes a framework through written
results Content Analysis – identifies specific characteristics of a
body of material
Methodology (Cont.)Step 1: Define a
communication language protocol schema between:◦The finite state machine definition
of the generalized simulation language (Σ1,S1,s01,δ1,F1)
◦The event-driven state machine definition of the client-server virtual reality environment (Σ2,S2,s02,δ2,F2).
Methodology (Cont.)Step 2: Test the robustness of
the developed communication between the two protocols:◦Virtual Environment - SecondLifeTM
◦Simulation Environment - LabVIEWTM
◦Test Case Refinery Process or other Large Scale
Construction Project
Methodology (Cont.)Step 3: Develop a generalized
framework to provide reuse of the communication protocol◦Provide code reusability.◦Tested through a small experiment
of new methodology of reuse vs. traditional.
Expected Results and Impact (1)
A communication language
protocol schema between a
simulation language and a
client-server Virtual Reality
Environment.
Expected Results and Impact (2)Communication between
virtual reality environment SecondLifeTM and LabVIEWTM.
Expected Results and Impact (3)Experimentally tested
framework to provide reusable simulation driven virtual environment components
Thank you for your participation.
Questions