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CN-122029585-A - Method and system for simulating a spray operation in a virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality environment

CN122029585ACN 122029585 ACN122029585 ACN 122029585ACN-122029585-A

Abstract

The invention relates generally to a method for simulating a painting operation, which method is adapted to calculate a paint projection surface (12) on a simulated workpiece (1) based on the position and orientation of the physical workpiece (1 ') and the physical tool (2'), and to determine the shape and volume of a paint coating (4) based on input paint parameters, wherein the shape and volume are calculated as a function of depositing paint material on one or more accumulation areas (13) of the paint projection surface (12), which accumulation areas form the paint coating (4) for an applied bulk layer (3). The invention also relates to an analog system comprising means configured to implement the described method and to a corresponding computer program.

Inventors

  • P. Markines Torressilia
  • S. Garrido Hurado
  • J. J. Chicha Bairena
  • P. Gunia

Assignees

  • 西伯里解决方案有限公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20240912
Priority Date
20230912

Claims (20)

  1. 1. A method for simulating a painting operation, wherein the painting operation represents the application of a layer or layers of paint material (3) on a physical workpiece (1'), and wherein the layer of paint material (3) forms a paint coating (4); Wherein the method comprises the operation of: A physical tool (2') operable by a user; at least one position detector (10) adapted to receive information corresponding to the position and orientation of the physical work piece (1 ') and/or the physical tool (2'), and -A simulation equipment (5) connected to the physical tool (2') and the position detector (10); wherein the simulation equipment (5) is equipped with hardware and software components including a paint parameter configurator (6), a paint spray calculator (7), a renderer and a display (9); wherein the method comprises performing the steps of: -obtaining, with the position detector (10), information corresponding to the spatial positions of the physical workpiece (1 ') and the physical tool (2'), and transmitting the spatial position information to the simulation equipment (5); calculating the position and orientation of the physical workpiece (1 ') and the physical tool (2') from information obtained by the position detector (10) using the position detector (10) and/or the simulation equipment (5); Establishing, with the paint parameter configurator (6), one or more input parameters characterizing a painting operation of the paint material layer or layers (3), wherein the input parameters include at least one of a composition of deposited paint material, a type of painting process, a paint and/or air outlet flow, an outlet fan opening of deposited paint; rendering, with the renderer (8), at least one simulation domain in which a simulation workpiece (1) and a simulation paint tool (2) representing the physical workpiece (1 ') and the physical tool (2'), respectively, are represented in a three-dimensional paint space; and wherein the method is characterized by further comprising the steps of: Calculating one or more paint accumulation regions (13) with the paint spray calculator (7), and wherein the accumulation regions (13) are determined by the paint spray calculator (7) based on paint and/or air outlet flow established with the paint parameter configurator (6); determining, with the paint spray calculator (7), a shape and a volume of the paint coating (4) based on input paint parameters; -rendering the paint coating (4) in the analog domain using the renderer (8); Displaying the simulated workpiece (1), the simulated painting tool (2) and the rendered paint coating (4) by means of the display (9).
  2. 2. The method according to the preceding claim, wherein: The paint accumulation area (13) is determined by a paint projection surface (12) on the simulated workpiece (1), the paint projection surface (12) being obtained based on the position and orientation of the physical workpiece (1 ') and/or the physical tool (2') and on input parameters of each layer (3), and The shape and volume of the paint coating (4) is calculated as a function of depositing paint material on one or more accumulation areas (13) of the paint projection surface (12), the one or more accumulation areas (13) forming the paint coating (4) for the applied overall layer (3).
  3. 3. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein in the step of determining the shape and volume of the paint coating (4) based on input parameters with the paint spray calculator (7), a paint material deposition function is a globally or locally decreasing function based on the centre of the paint accumulation region (13).
  4. 4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the step of determining the shape and volume of the paint coating (4) based on input parameters of each paint material layer (3) using the paint spray calculator (7) comprises generating one or more paint dispersion patterns.
  5. 5. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the step of determining the shape and volume of the paint coating (4) based on the input parameters of each paint material layer (3) with the paint spray calculator (7) comprises generating one or more roughness, sagging and/or displacement patterns of paint deposited on the simulated workpiece (1).
  6. 6. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the step of determining the shape and volume of the paint coating (4) based on the input parameters of each paint material layer (3) with the paint spray calculator (7) comprises calculating one or more indicators related to the properties of paint deposited on the simulated workpiece (1), the indicators comprising one or more of the time used during a painting operation, the efficiency of the transfer of deposited material, the consumption of paint material and the presence of defects.
  7. 7. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the step of calculating a paint projection surface (12) on the simulated workpiece (1) based on the position and orientation of the physical workpiece (1 ') and the physical tool (2') using the paint spray calculator (7) comprises correcting the shape and/or position of the projection surface (12) by gravity effects, turbulence effects, air molecular drag or drag effects, temperature and/or ambient humidity effects, and/or accelerations due to airflow in one or more directions in three-dimensional space.
  8. 8. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the step of calculating a paint projection surface (12) on the simulated workpiece (1) based on the position and orientation of the physical workpiece (1 ') and the physical tool (2') with the paint spray calculator (7) comprises one or more corrections determined based on the shape of the simulated workpiece (1).
  9. 9. The method of the preceding claim, wherein the correction determined based on the shape of the simulated workpiece (1) comprises determining one or more occlusion areas in the simulated workpiece (1).
  10. 10. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 9, wherein the step of calculating a paint projection surface (12) on the simulated workpiece (1) based on the position and orientation of the physical workpiece (1 ') and the physical tool (2') with the paint spray calculator (7) comprises determining one or more occlusion areas (14) in the simulated workpiece (1) due to the presence of one or more virtual objects (15) arranged between the simulated workpiece (1) and the simulated painting tool (2) and/or on the simulated workpiece (1) itself.
  11. 11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising the step of performing a parameterization of one or more surfaces of the simulated workpiece (1) with the parameterizer (6), wherein the parameterization comprises mapping a data matrix (16) along the surfaces of the simulated workpiece (1), and wherein the data matrix (16) comprises a plurality of information units (17), wherein each information unit (17) comprises one or more values indicative of one or more geometrical properties of the simulated workpiece (1), an amount or thickness of simulated paint deposited on a region of the simulated workpiece (1), a flowability of paint deposited on a region of the simulated workpiece (1), and/or a direction, a direction and/or a modulus of a velocity vector associated with displacement of paint deposited on a surface of the simulated workpiece (1).
  12. 12. The method according to the preceding claim, wherein: one or more of the information elements (17) of the data matrix (16) are square, triangular, hexagonal or polygonal in shape and/or wherein The information elements (17) of the matrix (16) have elements (17) of different types of shape and/or size.
  13. 13. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 12, wherein the step of rendering the paint coating (4) in the analog domain with the renderer (8) comprises generating particles (18) directly in the area on the surface of the workpiece (1) where paint deposition takes place, and associating the particles to corresponding information units (17).
  14. 14. The method according to the preceding claim, wherein one or more physical effects are applied to the deposited particles (18) to generate a movement of the particles (18) and/or a final appearance of a coating deposited on the workpiece (1).
  15. 15. A method according to any one of claims 13 to 14, wherein the cells (17) are filled with different numbers of simulated paint particles (18).
  16. 16. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein a minimum and/or maximum radius of particles (18) in the unit (17) is set.
  17. 17. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 16, wherein the unit (17) is flat.
  18. 18. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 17, wherein the direction, direction and/or modulus of the velocity vector of the deposited coating is calculated based on simulating the effect of gravity on the coating applied to the surface of the simulated workpiece (1) along the data matrix (16).
  19. 19. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 18, wherein mapping the data matrix (16) along the surface of the simulated workpiece (1) is such that each parameterized point or area of the surface of the simulated workpiece (1) corresponds to a mapping of a single information element (17) of the data matrix (16).
  20. 20. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 19, wherein the parameterization comprises mapping a plurality of data matrices (16) and/or n-dimensional data matrices (16) along a surface of the simulated workpiece (1), wherein information in information units (17) of the matrices (16) has different resolutions between at least two data matrices (16) and/or between at least two dimensions of one or more data matrices (16).

Description

Method and system for simulating a spray operation in a virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality environment Technical Field The present invention relates generally to the field of learning by augmented reality technology, and more particularly to methods and systems for simulating spray operations using a computer, such as for simulating spray technology, applying abrasive flows on surfaces, applying protective surface treatments, or dispersing fluid material onto any type of surface, typically by pressure, preferably by augmented reality methods. Within the scope of the present invention, the term "augmented reality" will be understood to also refer to any other visual representation technique by virtual reality or by mixed reality. Likewise, while the present invention generally relates to coatings as the preferred material for dispersion and/or spraying, within the scope of the present invention, the term will be understood to refer to any particulate, fluid and/or viscous material that can be dispersed or sprayed onto a surface by pressure, form a coating, and/or alter the properties of the surface (whether permanent or temporary). Examples of applications of the material are, for example, liquids, resins, foams, varnishes, or particulate materials such as silicon dioxide, glass, metals or plastics. Finally, within the scope of the present invention, the term jet will be understood as any technique for projecting, dispersing or propelling the aforementioned materials by pressure. Background Known systems and methods for simulating a spray operation by material deposition require intensive use of graphics processing resources to perform the simulation. Thus, in conventional paint simulation systems, considerable computing power is required to simulate the computation and presentation of paint coatings (i.e., the accumulation of paint material deposited on the paint surface interface). This effectively limits the performance of the device in which the simulation can be implemented, typically only to computers with dedicated graphics processing units. For example, mobile devices and/or web browsers typically do not allow conventional paint simulation techniques to be implemented. Furthermore, the conventional systems and methods are technically cumbersome to implement and present difficulties in developing new features and functionalities, such as achieving complex coating patterns and/or simulating different materials or specific coating techniques, such as low pressure spraying or airless spraying. In known paint simulation techniques, the amount of paint transferred from the paint tool (e.g., compressed air spray gun) used to the paint coating on the workpiece cannot be simulated with high accuracy due to the aforementioned computational limitations. However, in this field, it is important to obtain accurate modeling of the paint coating to closely simulate the continuous material layer deposited in each painting operation. In order to improve the conventional coating simulation technique, several solutions have been developed in recent years to partially reduce the computational requirements of the simulation operation while maintaining realistic and even photo-level realistic display results, obtaining simulated images comparable to the actual coating results. Examples of these techniques are described in patent application US 2013/0323995 A1 and patent US10,909,876B2. These documents describe different methods of simulating a paint coating by rendering a plurality of droplets, the accumulation of which forms a layer of paint on the projection area. Although such techniques can achieve satisfactory simulation results in terms of realism for simple painting operations, they are still too demanding in terms of required computational resources for more complex cases. In practice, this severely limits the scalability of such devices. Due to the recent improvements in paint operation simulation techniques, it is desirable to develop methods that can truly calculate paint coating characteristics, which can be simulated for different types of tools (spray guns, robotic arms, etc.), and have improved performance compared to known techniques. In the field of training and learning techniques of painting skills, possession of these indices is of great value, since it is possible for the learner and their teacher to obtain accurate quantitative information about the quality of a given painting operation. Furthermore, in the field of robotic painting, this capability would potentially improve the learning method of the painting robot. It is clear that to date, no mature techniques have been able to adequately calculate the pattern of simulated paint coating based on dynamic coating parameters (fan opening, air/paint flow, pressure, etc.), and these techniques are also viable in terms of computational resource requirements. The only realistic alternative to this possibility (mainly based on particle ren