Teijo Lehtonen
CTRL Reality Ltd
Teijo Lehtonen is the CEO of CTRL Reality Ltd. based in Turku, Finland. He has led a research group on mixed reality technologies at the University of Turku since 2012. CTRL Reality Ltd. is a spin-off company from this research work and despite the young age of the company, one of the most experienced developers of virtual and augmented reality applications for industry and cultural heritage in Finland. Currently, the company is developing a tool for designing HVAC systems in virtual reality.
Leo Sakari
CTRL Reality Ltd
Leo Sakari is the Lead Developer of CTRL Reality Ltd. based in Turku, Finland, where he has been responsible for the design and/or development of various virtual reality applications, ranging from 360-tours to CAD-tools. Before joining CTRL Reality, he worked for several years at the University of Turku, where he both developed several mixed reality applications and studied their applicability in the industrial sector. Leo Sakari is the main developer of the HVAC Planning Tool presented at WDBE 2018.
Virtual reality (VR) in building industry has so far been mainly used in visualizing the designs created elsewhere. While this has many benefits it still lacks a crucial one: to actually do the design in VR. We present a tool where a HVAC system can be designed using virtual reality from scratch and all the way to a complete system.
Modern high-end virtual reality devices such as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift can create the feeling of immersiveness, of being in the place. This feature can be used in creating HVAC system so that the designer stands in the middle of the design and “feels” the feasibility of the created design. With a good immersion, it is easy to observe, if some devices do not fit to given place, pipes cross or some part of the design is in the way of installation or maintenance work.
The HVAC design tool works as follows: 1) The already existing facility can be scanned and used as a basis for the design. For a new target, a 3D model can be used or a simple room model is created based on the measures. 2) 3D models of the equipment to be used are imported to form a library for the design. A number of different CAD formats are supported. The models need to be imported only once and a cloud solution enables the use of one library in multiple locations. 3) The devices in correct scale are selected from the library and placed on the desired locations. 4) Piping is introduced using special user interface. The material and size of the pipes are set as well as the information whether insulation is required. The selections are illustrated immediately. 5) Other equipment, such as meters and valves are introduced to the pipes.
The created design can be used as such with the same equipment than it was created or the design can be exported to be used elsewhere. The validation of the design is a good example of the use with the same tool. One can e.g. easily make sure, that there is enough room for installation and maintenance work around the devices, there are no pipes hanging too low in the areas of walking. In case of any changes need to be done, it is easy to make the changes in VR and see the results immediately. Other uses for the tool are communication with various stakeholders, planning the installation, and training the maintenance personnel already before the installation has began. The tool supports also exporting material in other formats. The list of devices and materials and floorplan of the design are useful for the installation. The work can be further supported by 360 images from the design which can be viewed e.g. with a mobile phone.
In addition to the features of the tool, the presentation will consist of discussion on the potential uses and benefits. We will also present an example of a real-life case, where the tool has been used. Also the future development will be discussed.