De-risk assessment: Assessments toprepare and de-risk technology developments of ICARUS VR-Tool
The objective of the project is to Derisk a number of the key features required for the development of an ICARUS Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Specifically, the Derisk focuses on the representation of tooling and of cables and their routing in the VR environment, to assess whether these can be represented with sufficient realism for the intended purposes.
ICARUS will provide an immersive environment that allows for training of Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT) procedures in Virtual Reality (VR). This will enable industry users to reduce costs associated with training of (new) employees, will enable them to reduce the effort required in the coordination with and training of their industry partners (system level manufacturers, launch organisations and customers), and will contribute to risk reduction in the AIT process in general. In doing so, ICARUS will contribute to the digitalization of engineering processes in the space industry.
To assess whether tools and cables can be represented with sufficient realism in a virtual AIT training environment, an ICARUS Proof of Concept (PoC) was developed. In this PoC, users can test the initial implementation of tools (screwdriver and tweezers) and of cables and cable routing by means of assembling a simple cubesat. During the project, potential future users from ISISpace provided user stories related to the AIT process. Additionally, they were involved in the validation process to test whether requirements derived from these user stories were successfully implemented. In general, it was concluded that the tools and cables can be represented in ICARUS with sufficient realism for the intended purposes. Although further maturation of this functionality is still relevant during the subsequent MVP development, this is fully feasible within the current system design.