Development and Evaluation of the Virtual Prototype of the First Saudi Arabian-Designed Car

Abstract

Prototyping and evaluation are imperative phases of the present product design and development process. Although digital modeling and analysis methods are widely employed at various product development stages, still, building a physical prototype makes the present typical process expensive and time consuming. Therefore, it is necessary to implement new technologies, such as virtual prototyping, which can enable industry to have a rapid and more controlled decision making process. Virtual prototyping has come a long way in recent years, where current environments enable stereoscopic visuals, surround sound and ample interaction with the generated models. It is also important to evaluate how representative the developed virtual prototype is when compared to the real-world counterpart and the sense of presence reported by users of the virtual prototype. This paper describes the systematic procedure to develop a virtual prototype of Gazal-1 (i.e., the first car prototype designed by Saudi engineers) in a semi-immersive virtual environment. The steps to develop a virtual prototype from CAD (computer-aided design) models are explained in detail. Various issues involved in the different phases for the development of the virtual prototype are also discussed comprehensively. The paper further describes the results of the subjective assessment of a developed virtual prototype of a Saudi Arabian-designed automobile. User's feedback is recorded using a presence questionnaire. Based on the user-based study, it is revealed that the virtual prototype is representative of the real Saudi Arabian car and offers a flexible environment to analyze design features when compared against its physical prototype. The capabilities of the virtual environment are validated with the application of the car prototype. Finally, vital requirements and directions for future research are also presented.

Design and Development of an Android App (HanDex) to Enhance Hand Dexterity in Children With Poor Handwriting

“…This section describes the methodology used for the development of the prototype of the hand dexterity application. We have used the Evolutionary Prototyping Model as our Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Model [87] [92], because prototypes can be easily perceived and evaluated by the end-user [1]. Understanding the strength and challenges of a learner can enhance the design of technological tools for education [20].…”

Comparison of LSTM, Transformers, and MLP-mixer neural networks for gaze based human intention prediction

“…Benefits such as being able to provide more relevant content and present it in a suitable context (Rizzo et al, 2004 ) are reasons to promote the use of VR. It can, for example, be used when making prototypes (Abidi et al, 2016 ), to train operators in assembly (Al-Ahmari et al, 2016 ), and improve remote maintenance (Aschenbrenner et al, 2016 ).…”

Human Movement Direction Prediction using Virtual Reality and Eye Tracking

“…Benefits such as being able to provide more relevant content and present it in a suitable context [12] are reasons to promote the use of VR. It can, for example, be used; when making prototypes [13], to train operators in assembly [14], and improve remote maintenance [15].…”