VR warehouse acceptance and workstation simulation
True-to-scale VR models of automated warehouses for more than 20 customer projects, and VR mock-ups of picking workstations.
- Year
- 2017–2024
- Context
- viastore SYSTEMS GmbH
- My role
- Development of the VR simulations in Unity and C#
- Tools
- Unity, C#, 3ds Max, Blender, HTC Vive, Oculus Quest, Leap Motion
Task
viastore plans automated warehouses. Customers should be able to walk through a planned facility and test it before it is built. For picking workstations, ergonomics and processes had to be checked before the hardware existed.
Approach
True-to-scale VR models of complete facilities in Unity. The customer navigates the plan through a simple interface and sees the material flow. Devices: HTC Vive with a Leap Motion sensor for hand tracking, later also Oculus Quest.
For workstations, a VR mock-up simulated the whole process. Ergonomics could be checked at real scale, and staff could be trained before commissioning.
The layouts came from Demo3D. Building one model took two to three days.
Result
VR acceptance was used in more than 20 projects. The technology was new at the time, and customers were excited. In VR the space constraints became clear, which made for better discussions.
