TechViz - Blog - AR / VR for engineering

This article is the 2021 edition of a regular review the TechViz team carries out to help you navigate the market. There are indeed many types of XR headsets around: tethered, all-in-one, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality… This can sometimes be confusing, especially because every manufacturer uses its own terminology to boast the uniqueness of its technology.

Designing and manufacturing aircrafts is quite a challenge. The million parts composing a plane must be as light as possible, while extremely resistant, and they must be assembled in a precise order. This has to be done in a context of fully globalized supply chains, with subassemblies prepared in different locations across the globe.

 Hence you should watch for some key issues: 

• The risk of conception errors is multiplied by the number of contractors and workers involved in the project

More and more engineers are relying on Augmented Reality (AR) and  Virtual Reality (VR) in their jobs. Yet, to do so, you need to choose a software and a deployment that fits your use of these technologies, internal skills and budget priorities.

The choice usually boils down to On-Premise versus SaaS (Software as a Service), but it covers various dimensions:

- Budget: Subscription model versus permanent license 

- Location of rendering servers: local versus Cloud

- Remote accessibility and collaboration

Let’s take a look at these different dimensions to help you determine which is best for your business.

For years, maintenance has been perceived as critical to the productivity performance, but treated as an afterthought during the development phase and as a pain point in the operation phase.

Maintainability had unmet needs that were hard to address with traditional development and production techniques. Yet, with the cost of service being built into the ownership model of an ever-larger number of products, companies are increasingly paying attention to ensure easy and efficient maintainability. The rise of new technologies, such as the Virtual and Augmented Realities (VR /AR), the Internet of Things (IoT) associated with Artificial Intelligence are changing dramatically the way it is addressed.

For machine tool manufacturers, Virtual Reality offers many important opportunities. Indeed, an increasing number of their customers have embraced the Smart Factory concept, in other words the use of advanced CAD systems as well as data-driven manufacturing. With this, the core of the tooling industry has shifted from simple machining technology to more sophisticated and advanced horizontal / vertical machining centers, Computer Numerical Control and multi-tasking part processing, making it an increasingly complex environment that Virtual Reality can help navigate.

Traditional VR often requires powerful computers and other high-performance devices to provide a good user experience. But what if there was a way to work with VR content from any device and anywhere? This is what Cloud VR - also called virtual reality cloud - promises to VR users. With the arrival of 5G and other network offers, this future for virtual reality technology might be sooner than we thought.

The history of VR has often been influenced by the defense industry. One of the first VR projects was developed in the 1960’s for a US military combat system. Virtual reality has always played a significant role in the military field and was adopted by all services: army, navy, and air force. It is mostly used for army training purposes, but there are other use cases where VR is a powerful tool.

In 2080, one third of the European population will be 65 or older. For smart factories through the path of the Industry 4.0, it means having a “good” workplace is not enough, and its design should anticipate the preservation of the operator’s wellbeing. Therefore, the working environment for modern manufacturing workplaces must allow for the best productivity and quality outputs, while offering a secure environment for the workers.

Many businesses have integrated virtual reality in their processes, especially since the covid-19 pandemic. More and more sectors undergoing digital transformation are taking advantage of enterprise VR to access cost-effective tools to conceive better products and collaborate more efficiently with 3D data.