The Digital Detroit Project

Modern automotive assembly lines are technical marvels involving in-depth, highly sophisticated processes in materials management, engineering, and robotic automation systems. The end result of the line is a functional motor vehicle, a critical component of modern life, the facilitator of societal advances, and a fundamental necessity of our culture for over a century.

The Digital Detroit Project is designed to allow ready visualization of the automotive assembly line process. The project encompasses a complete automotive manufacturing facility, detailing the process of the assembly line from start to finish. Models of various robotic operations, computer information systems, and human interaction combine to provide a view of the flow control and operation of the plant during production.

Visualization of the virtual assembly line in operation presents unique new opportunities for expediting new innovations in automobile development and manufacturing. By simulating the assembly line, and monitoring of key performance measures under different conditions, the virtual environment provisions for rapid reconfiguration, opening opportunities for testing the implementation of new design paradigms, enhancing the capacity for identification of productivity bottlenecks, and isolating potential safety hazards out of the manufacturing process.

The virtual environment allows for rapid modification and immediate visualization of changes to the plant at a cost level far beneath those incurred by actual construction. Information derived from experimentation in the virtual environment works to accumulate data which streamlines the process of planning and developing new plants.

The plant features an interactive media tour, which includes pictures, media, and text of the assembly line from "getting the parts" to putting them together with the aid of robots. Interviews with virtual union safety representatives and workers involved in assembly planning are available, as are links to websites featuring information on new concepts such as solar cars and other unique autos and their histories. Puzzles and other games are also available as is a variety of automotive facts including the history of cars, instructions on how to build an electric motor from household materials, and the opportunity to drive the manufactured vehicle around the track, and to experience the impact in the crash test facility.

MetaCrafters looks forward with anticipation to the public and industry reception of this project as it moves towards public availability.