The G-SCOP laboratory helps companies to design, train and develop using XR technologies.
Crédits photos : G-SCOP
Backed by its expertise in science and research, the G-SCOP laboratory’s mission is to support companies in the development of XR solutions. Specializing more in engineering, the laboratory is committed to improving performance and collaboration in the professional world through virtual reality. It works with other players in the immersive sector, including software supplier SkyReal. The G-SCOP team will be present at Laval Virtual from April 9 to 11, 2025.
Can you tell us more about your company?
The G-SCOP laboratory is a Mixed Research Unit in science for design, optimization and production. For 15 years, G-SCOP has been hosting the technological platform VISION-R with which we train future engineers, conduct research and help companies develop new virtual or augmented reality applications for design and production of manufactured products.
Through different institutional projects and collaborations with companies, we’ve developed XR applications for collaborative design review, supervision and reconfiguration of production lines, teleoperation, tele immersion, training at the workstation, positioning sensors to monitor the integrity of large structures, exploring system engineering systems, maintaining geometric coherence of digital twins, or modeling systems architecture.
For this, we use traditional XR equipment (HMDs, Hololens, multi-touch table stereoscopic screen, Optitrack cameras) and other (mini-CAVE, tactile 3-face CAVE, multi-touch tactile HD screen wall, haptic arm).
VISION-R is one of the 37 French XR platforms that are part of the EquipEx+ CONTINUUM project, the Digital Macrospace for Human-Centered Computing. Since Octobre 2024, G-SCOP has been sharing the common laboratory (LabCom) ANR MIMESIS with the virtual reality software supplier SkyReal.
From a theoretical point of view, the LabCom MIMESIS aims to better understand how visual representations and interactive visualization devices influence the activities and cognitive processes of users, particularly system architects. Finally, from a practical point of view, we invent 3D virtual environments – immersive or not – for the collaborative design of system architectures and complex technical systems.
Today, our main partner is ArianeGroup for the co-design of a launcher and its industrial system. The visualization of heterogeneous engineering data to design and manage the design of complex systems is not limited to the space sector. The proliferation of data in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach is a problem at the heart of all industries. For example, another case study with CEA Cadarache is currently being set up as part of the design of the DEMO Active Maintenance Facility for the EUROfusion project.
What will you exhibit at Laval Virtual?
At Laval Virtual, we’ll be giving visitors the chance to try out a prototype, as well as viewing videos of demonstrators from our research.
Are you planning any activities or demos at your booth?
We’ll be demonstrating GraphXplore. GraphXplore is a first version (still under development) of a virtual environment for exploring design data for complex technological systems (space launchers, ships, airplanes, helicopters, etc.) in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach. Developed as part of the MIMESIS LabCom, GraphXplore is a module integrated into the SkyReal solution.
What innovation are you working on?
The current project is a set of modules being developed as part of our collaboration with SkyReal. The first module, which will be on display, is dedicated to the visual exploration of system engineering data in a model-centric approach. A second module will be used by system architects to co-design the architecture of the product system and its industrial system. The idea is to offer an alternative to modeling interfaces based on diagrammatic visual notations inherited from software engineering, which are often considered too esoteric and lack the heterogeneous data exploration capabilities expected by a system architect.
Another line of work consists in developing and integrating new human-IA interactions in these virtual environments. In addition, a thesis on asymmetrical collaboration has just been launched. The aim is to make these collaborative virtual environments more flexible by adapting representations to various factors such as heterogeneous interactive visualization devices (desktop, HMD, CAVE, touch screen), the task in hand, or user concerns, in order to operationalize asymmetrical collaboration.
Finally, a more fundamental thesis, focusing on psychology and cognitive ergonomics, aims to better understand the influence of visual representations on cognitive and transdisciplinary conceptual co-design activities. Indeed, the adoption of these new interfaces by systems engineers requires a better understanding of the activity and new interactive visualization modalities.
Sustainability and the environment are key topics of this century. How do you cope with these concerns in your XR technologies?
With digital engineering, you can create virtual prototypes and simulations that reduce the number of physical prototypes and, therefore, raw materials consumption. By optimizing products and production processes in the virtual world, XR can minimize waste and increase efficiency of systems. The collaborative dimension also reduce travels thanks to remote development activities in geographically dispersed organizations.
