This pilot project formed the basis of the development of virtual control consoles for industrial metal processing. To accomplish this, the Ars Electronica Futurelab transposed one of VAI’s hot rolling mills along with its entire architectural setting into the virtual reality of the CAVE. The digital version of the plant facility offers decisive advantages over the actual one.

The application generates a laboratory situation that makes it possible, without a major expenditure of effort, to simulate and test enhancements to the equipment itself and new ways of working with the rolling mill. To accomplish this, the original layout of a real rolling mill was translated directly into the application. Moreover, production operations can be visualized up close from any conceivable perspective, including those from which on-the-spot observation would be impossible for a variety of reasons (e.g. extreme heat).

This interactive 3-D application is part of a multi-phase research project at the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Software Engineering under the direction of Prof. Dr. Gustav Pomberger in cooperation with the Ars Electronica Futurelab. The work was commissioned by Voest Alpine Industrieanlagenbau (VAI).