From simulation to virtual reality in industrial applications

Simulation and related technologies are fast evolving into strategical, practical tools to secure competitivity edge to industrial companies. During the rapid growing of new technological areas, pioneering users sometimes experience hard times and turbulent situations; usually they react with extreme caution, mainly for the missing vision of reliable workframes as a reference. Extreme caution, in turn, may lower company competitivity in today markets. The present contribution is one of the first attempts to depict the main relationships between model, animation, realistic simulation, physical simulation and their inter- and intra-play to arrive to synthetic environments and active support systems for strategic applications. Synthetic environments and active support systems are key components for effective Rapid Prototyping to be used with high profit by industrial companies. Current techniques are critically revised and presented into an organic scenario to serve as a basic reference for competitive critical assumptions.