The car manufacturer has been using virtually generated 3D models as an integral part of its development process since 2003. The company is now also testing a virtual reality holodeck to assess the design of new car models virtually at an early stage. The term "holodeck" comes from the science fiction series "Star Trek" and refers to a special room that simulates virtual worlds. In the new virtual reality holodeck, the vision becomes reality. Car prototypes can be displayed realistically and true to proportion in the room, which measures around 15 by 15 meters. The experts from Audi planning have recreated the room in which the design assessment takes place 1:1 in the virtual world.

There they place the virtual models with the help of current construction data. They can experience them intuitively both from the inside and the outside. In contrast to previous VR environments, up to six people can now walk around the car at the same time.

The company tests the holodeck at the interface between development and production. Here, experts from both areas jointly assess the overall visual impression and the surfaces of the new car and adjust the position of individual lines and joints. This assessment is the final step before the tools required for the car go into production. Until now, photorealistic 2D computer graphics and hand-made physical models have been used for this purpose, which are costly and take up to six weeks to build.

"The VR Holodeck gives us a realistic impression of the proportions of our future models. This allows us to make important decisions more quickly," says Martin Rademacher, Head of the VR Holodeck project at Audi. The two-dimensional representation is still used to analyze individual aspects in detail: "This currently offers a higher resolution and better quality than the walk-in VR installation," says Rademacher.

To work in the holodeck, each user wears VR goggles and two hand controllers for interaction. On their backs is a rucksack with a powerful PC weighing just three kilograms. This calculates the scene. The users' mobile PCs are connected via WLAN to a central workstation that controls the data exchange. The three-dimensional model can be transferred to various environmental settings. In a further expansion stage, the holodeck enables participants from other Audi sites to be connected, which makes work organization much easier. Once production has started, the system is used to ensure the quality of a model.

Audi developed the overall concept together with the Stuttgart-based media agency Lightshape. The company plans to introduce the holodeck into its work processes before the end of this year. The aim of the current test phase is also to sound out possibilities for its use in other areas of the company: The production planners have already virtually displayed entire assembly line sections in the system in order to visualize future processes. The department is also in contact with other brands in the Volkswagen Group.

Other existing areas of application for virtual reality technologies include virtual training for employees in packaging logistics and the Audi VR experience for customer advice. This allows interested parties to configure their dream car virtually and experience all the equipment options realistically. kp