Virtual hands and virtual reality multimodal platform to design safer industrial systems

To face with the competitiveness in product design, industrials come up with the solution to use virtual reality (VR) techniques. Coupled with a dynamic simulation, those techniques lead to natural user interactions with virtual environments (VE). Our research focuses on how to model the hands of the operator because they allow him to interact with the environment.In this paper, we address the problem of VR applications to design for a better integration of safety and health requirements. After reviewing the industrial applications using VR, we present our virtual hands which are coupled with a virtual press-brake by using a system of motion capture and a force feedback device. Thus, the operator can interact in real-time with the VE. Our simulation tool is also interfaced to a product model that allows configuring the machine itself. As a result, we are able to estimate the risk level of this machine tool.