Energy visualization techniques for machine tools in virtual reality

Energy-efficient machine tools are becoming a more and more important factor for competitive manufacturing processes. However, there is still a lack of appropriate visualization techniques that effectively support engineers and scientists to consider energy as an additional optimization and decision parameter in machine tool design and manufacturing. Virtual Reality has become an effective technology able to visualize very complex systems, providing the users with a high level of immersion and interactivity. For this reasons, a great deal of research activity has recently been focused on the development of advanced Virtual Reality-based visualization techniques capable of representing the energy flow through the machine tools in a clear and intuitive manner. This paper presents three different Virtual Reality-based energy visualization methods and a comparison of them based on a short user survey. In addition to 2D Billboard and 3D Sankey diagram, an innovative energy visualization technique based on 3D particle systems will be explained in detail. All three visualization methods have been implemented in one Virtual Reality model of a specific machine tool. The energy values have been determined from real measurements carried out directly on the real machine tool. This allowed a comparison of the three methods by means of their usability and understanding. Therefore a short user survey has been conducted in order to determine the advantages and disadvantages as well as improvement potential of the three visualization methods from the user's point of view