23 Virtual Prototyping Using Graphical Simulation and Advanced Programming Techniques K.-D. Thoben, U. Berger, J. Bauer, A. Schmidt BIBA -Bremen Institute for Industrial Technology and Applied Work Science at the University of Bremen P. 0. Box 33 05 60, D-28335 Bremen, Germany email: as@biba.uni-bremen.de Abstract This paper presents a practical approach towards Virtual Prototyping. The fields of application are One-of-a-Kind products and industrial prototypes. The first example is taken from the problem area of typically high complex capital goods being virtually modelled and simulated prior to the real setting-up. The strategy of complimentarily developing both, the prototype's mechanics and its functionality and the issues of concurrent and distributed team-work are characterised. Enabling technologies for the iterative setting-up of the real prototype are described with reference to practical experience. The second example is the virtual and the touchable prototyping of sheet metal parts, incorporating the FEM simulation of the process as well as the closed prototyping chain for a fast verification of the results. An enabling technology is the triangulation of parametric CAD surface models, a technique to represent random solid bodies as a polyedrical mesh, from which "real" and "virtual" prototypers will equally profit. The possibility to include surface data acquired by 3D measurement systems is also discussed. As a conclusion, the modelling of process chains is seen as an adequate approach to achieve better clarity in production as well as in the product development, describing actions and streams in between them. Their addition leads to a reference model for rapid product development and One-of-a-Kind Production, providing an abstract view of the various process chains in a neutral and logical manner. This is a necessity to reach the aim of production in the end of this century: "make just what is needed when it is needed". Keywords: Virtual Prototyping, graphical simulation, industrial robots, car disassembling, Neural Network, off-line programming, optical 3D-measurement, CAD surface model, sheet metal forming, Rapid Prototyping, Concurrent Engineering, triangulation, Stereolithography STL- file, Reverse Engineering, rendering J. Rix et al. (eds.), Virtual Prototyping © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 1995