A virtual reality based system for remote maintenance of rotating machinery

Abstract

It is important to look for alternative forms of physical movement of people and equipment to assure diagnosis and maintenance tasks. To reach this aim a lot of research is being done in different fields of maintenance and computer science. An evident and classical solution is the use of the tele-operation and tele-robotics. If the tele-operation helped to solve several real and technical problems, it still remains insufficient to assure an appropriate remote diagnosis and maintenance. The use of virtual reality techniques with tele-operation can be the solution. This paper introduces an integrated methodology to remotely monitor and diagnose distant machines by a robot hand. Using a virtual reality environment and a tele-operation system, the vibration data are collected from different checking points. In order to pinpoint the faults, the collected data are analyzed and then using a fuzzy system the features extraction was performed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.