The aviation division of bp, Air bp is one of the world’s leading suppliers of aviation fuel products and services. The company is known for its innovative approach and sought an engineering solution to protect its operators against making mistakes. After many years of search, the company seems to have found a solution in AR technology.

The Misfuelling Challenge

When ground crew operators are fueling a small aircraft, they are constantly facing a menacing risk of putting in the wrong grade of fuel. While using the wrong fuel grade for the car is quite common, in aviation misfuelling can potentially bring catastrophic consequences and cost human lives.

The misfuelling challenge thus stays one of the most crucial for the entire industry.

For many years Air bp was reliant on ground workers following the operational procedure. Still, despite the best training for operators, the human error factor is always present and poses a significant risk. The company’s goal has been to find an automatic way to help operators.

AR Technology Enables the Solution

As the handheld device became less expensive and widespread, the team behind the Airfield Automation safe2go solution tried to find a way to use computer vision to recognize fuel-grade labels (decals) placed next to the aircraft fuel tank orifice.

Their goal was to get technology to work with something the aircraft already has without modifying its construction. The team has identified two success factors: the AR technology must never give the wrong fuel grade and have a high success rate of recognizing a decal.

The prototype was rolled out and tested in over 40 airports around the world. To find a reliable solution, Air bp has worked together with AR technology provider Wikitude. The success of the prototype has allowed the whole project to proceed as a safety-critical application.

Good For Safety, Good For Processes

Airfield Automation safe2go is a cloud-based safety-critical application that relies on Image Tracking AR technology to help operators recognize decals representing various types of fuels and help the ground crew avoid making grave mistakes.

Four hundred and ninety-six vehicles at 126 airports are equipped with the AA safe2go app (powered with AR), completing over 12,500 fuellings per week (more than 1 aircraft per minute).

The team soon found out there is a considerable benefit in capturing data in real-time through augmented reality. Previously, the data transmission from the airport to Air bp’s invoicing system was taking almost two days. Now, it is coming through in real-time.

Using the versatile functionality of image tracking, the airline can now send an order electronically, notifying the operators in advance which fuel they need to deliver. Additional benefits allowed Air bp to expand its digital offering.

Award-Winning AR Solution

Manifesting the product’s maturity for market deployment, Air bp’s Airfield Automation has been recognized by the prestigious bp Helios Safety Award and won the UK Real IT Award (including Excellence in Application Modernisation and the Product Innovation awards). The solution has also had its first granted patent.

But most importantly, this use case shows how the long-debated utility of AR technology turns into reality and serves to automate processes and establish a new standard in safety.

The topics included in this interview are:

1. About Aggreko
2. Current role at Aggreko
3. AR pilot
4. Pre-pandemic challenges to adopting AR
5. Change management
6. Creating digital content
7. How COVID-19 impacted Aggreko’s operations
8. XR replacing what needs to get certified
9. The role AR played in Aggreko’s going remote during the pandemic
10. How AR enabled certain remote tasks and activities

You can access the full interview here. 

Both machine operators and John Deere executive team members are smiling, as the wearable hands-free devices are poised to save the company a great deal of time and money in the long-term.

How Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses improve life for John Deere machine operators:

Hands-free communication

Construction sites aren’t ideal for talking on smartphones. Hands-free and voice-controlled, Smart Glasses allow users to conduct video calls without distraction. Conversation partners are displayed in the corner of a team member’s field-of-view meaning they can still monitor their surroundings while reporting to supervisors. This innovation will save lives.

Real-time reporting

Instead of describing mechanical problems to off-site colleagues, operators can broadcast their first-person view directly to supervisors. They can also report on the status of machinery in real-time with a simple tap of the device’s touchpad. Talk about making the entire process more seamless…

Next gen training

New operators will benefit from the ability to broadcast whatever they’re looking at to off-site supervisors. The next best thing to having an instructor over your shoulder, this development has proven a gamechanger for many Vuzix partners throughout the global pandemic.

Read the full article here.

As the world continues to adjust to more virtual ways of working, industrial organizations are turning to digital technologies to stay connected, productive, and resilient. With out-of-the box solutions that deliver rapid ROI, industrial augmented reality (AR) overcomes thorny workforce challenges, speeds up on-the-job learning, and creates opportunities for employees to collaborate—even at a distance.

This eBook gathers actionable tips from five experts who are using industrial AR to drive innovation and improve how frontline workforces get things done in today’s new normal. Each of these experts was asked to respond to the same question: In today’s climate, what is the most important consideration for somebody ready to empower their employees with Augmented Reality?

With expert opinions from

• Shawn Metivier, General Manager Reliability, BID Group
• AndrewE. Chrostowski, Chairman and CEO, RealWear
• Chrsitian Radillo, Global technical Consultant for extended reality, Rockwell Azutomation
• Matt Kwiatkowski, Global Learning Strategy & Technology Program Leader,, GE Healthcare

You can view all the advice and opinions from the experts on Industrial AR and XR in the PTC ebook.

Critical infrastructures (CRITIS) such as the chemical storage terminal of Attilio Carmagnani are of central importance to our modern society. Very high demands are placed on their operational security as failures or impairments of CRITIS can have serious consequences. For example, terrorist or drone attacks on assets of the chemical sector could pose severe risks to public health and safety.

However, maintaining the operational safety of these infrastructures presents a challenge. Due to cyber-physical threats critical infrastructures are exposed to an increasing potential of danger and keeping up with security issues has become more difficult in the last years.

About EU Horizon 2020: InfraStress

The Horizon 2020 project InfraStress has taken on this challenge and aims to create protection in the form of innovative technology. A consortium of 27 partners from 11 countries started to work on developed methods to improve the cyber-physical security and developed an open testbed stress-testing system. Augmented reality training is one part of InfraStress’ set of measures.

“By using augmented reality and smart glasses, we work on a better assessment of these critical and industrial environments. Via AR operators and workers can be trained, how to clamp down on cyber-physical threats and hazards,” states Alexander Werlberger, CTO at Holo-Light. “The collaboration with our partners Attilio Carmagnani and STAM was very enriching: we learned a lot from each other and created a very customized solution for industrial requirements.”

Emergency Training with Augmented Reality

Situational awareness is crucial in case of emergency. Every action must be right. With AR personnel can be trained through real-time simulations. It prepares team members to make critical decisions on the spot and to have realistic experiences without endangering anyone.

Irene Bonetti, Terminal Director of Attilio Carmagnani affirms: “During training we have to imagine fire or liquids. With the AR training solution on HoloLens 2 we can really see it and understand how the chemicals will behave. Also, the fact that AR trainings can be executed one-by-one multiple times helps us to prepare in a better way.”

Conclusion

As governments and enterprises see the potential of improving disaster response skills with augmented reality, analysts expect a rise of AR training solutions in the public sector. Also, the increased roll-out of 5G networks will have a positive influence on its further spread. Ultra-high bandwidths and low latency as well as the increasing deployment and acceptance of cloud and edge computing will power digital transformation through XR (an umbrella term for all immersive technologies).

New vendors have entered the market with many of the established companies offering their platforms and solutions at a reduced cost or for free. The increase in vendors has been especially focused in Remote Expert (See-What-I-See) video sharing capabilities for onsite equipment failure and maintenance issue resolution support.

This article talks through the Key drivers for the use of AR include and how the AEC industry is rapidly adopting digital transformation technologies, such as AR.

Digital Construction Works (DCW) is implementing solutions such as Bentley Systems Synchro XR Hololens applications to forge a path in immersive 4D simulations for on-site for construction planning and virtualized inspections of pre-scanned 3D photogrammetry models of telecommunication towers or bridges for safe maintenance reviews.

But how can the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) industry and their clients further embrace the promise of AR technologies particularly during the construction and commissioning phases to leverage their investments as part of an asset lifecycle digital twin strategy?

The article goes on to look at the status quote including remote experts and guided workflow as well as offering a case study example.

The full article can be read here.

The digitization of processes in the logistics centers is an important factor for this. For Rexel Germany it was particularly useful to find new solutions for the regular in-house tours and maintenance. With Inspect AR from Microsoft partner Netcetera, these work processes can be made even more efficient on Microsoft HoloLens 2 in the future.

Support for employees with security checks

If you imagine a logistics center with its huge buildings and technical systems, it becomes clear how important special measures are here for fire protection and the safety of people and objects.

For this reason, employees at Rexel Germany previously had to use manually managed Excel lists to check at regular intervals whether the fire extinguishers were always in the right positions and ready for use. During such tours there is a risk that checkpoints on the list have been mixed up or left out. In addition, the employees needed time to orientate themselves in the warehouse.

With Inspect AR on HoloLens 2, employees are now guided to the right places in the logistics center by holograms. The Microsoft Azure Spatial Anchors technology locates each test point geographically in the building. At the examination points, employees also receive supporting information in the form of images, videos and texts and can confirm the points in real time on digital checklists.

In this way, the new digital solution with Inspect AR on HoloLens 2 increases the overall accuracy with which security tours are carried out. In addition, the mixed reality solution also simplifies the onboarding of new employees who do not yet know the building. You will be guided step by step through the logistics center by Inspect AR on HoloLens 2.

With HoloLens 2 and Inspect AR, everything is in the right place

Another challenge in the logistics center is to equip all workplaces with the necessary materials. For this purpose, regular tours are carried out, during which the employees check whether there are dispensers for adhesive film, printing equipment or similar materials at all workplaces.

In order for the colleagues to find their way around the desk, the materials should always be placed in the same position and functional. Various sample tables, which are compared with the workstations on checklists, serve as templates. In the previous work process, employees of Rexel Germany noted such steps with manually managed Excel lists.

Logistics employee carries HoloLens 2 in the logistics center

The new process with Inspect AR on HoloLens 2 simplifies this significantly: Employees put on HoloLens 2 and have their hands free for their tasks throughout the work process. At the same time, all the information required can be conveniently displayed in the field of vision.

In addition, there is no need to compare the printed checklists, because all information is digitally fed directly into the Inspect AR web management tool. This enables digital management of the entire process – from creating templates for work instructions and checklists, through creating and monitoring tasks, to viewing results reports.

“With Inspect AR and Mixed Reality, you can switch from paper to digital work instructions in just a few hours, instead of taking days or weeks. Our software makes the know-how of experts available virtually on the real object. This has the following advantages: Faster execution and more efficiency, clear documentation with photos, videos, text and a 100% transparent overview of all processes. ”- Elias Remele, Business Development Manager Netcetera

Thanks to the digital database of tours and maintenance with Inspect AR on HoloLens 2, Rexel Germany now quickly receives a comprehensive overview of work processes and can further optimize them based on this.

“Even greater security for our employees in the logistics center, reliable processes for our customers and a reduction in our CO2 footprint: with the introduction of mixed reality test processes in the logistics center, Rexel Germany is consistently taking the next big step towards digitization and sustainability.” – Nicole Steuer, company spokeswoman Rexel Germany.

Read Microsoft’s AREA member profile here 

Immersive training, including AR-enabled over-the-shoulder coaching and virtual simulations, was one of the top enterprise XR use cases before COVID. When the pandemic put a halt to travel and in-person classroom learning, the benefits of AR/VR for training only shone brighter.

Going forward, these benefits – reduced travel (ability to deliver training directly to employees), greater flexibility (ability to simulate any scenario), etc. – guarantee XR will be an onboarding and upskilling standard across industry. Revisit this panel from EWTS 2020 featuring experts from Walmart, AtlasCopco, Bridgestone, Solvay, and Re’flekt to hear more.

The market is expected to reach US$  303,934.14 thousand by 2028 from US$ 145,287.76 thousand in 2020

It is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 9.9% from 2020 to 2028

The report highlights the trends prevailing in the market, along with market drivers and deterrents.

Surgical smart glasses provide a smarter way to perform surgeries across the globe. Surgeons wear these glasses while performing a surgery and expert professionals from outside can view the surgery through these smart glasses and give advice regarding the surgery.

Surgeon in Operation Theater can communicate with another surgeon with the help of microphones of the glasses and share the surgical view with the wide lens camera on the surgical smart glass.

A few prominent players operating in the surgical smart glasses market are

• MEDITHINQ CO., LTD
• Taiwan Main Orthopaedic Biotechnology
• IRISTICK (AREA member)
• DTU Srl
• Vuzix Corporation (AREA member)
• Pixee Medical
• RODS AND CONES
• AMA XpertEye
• ImmersiveTouch, Inc
• Microsoft Corporation (AREA member)

Market players are launching new and innovative products and services to sustain their position in the surgical smart glasses market. For instance, in Jun 2020, MediThinQ commercially launched wireless smart glasses GV-200C. These wireless smart glasses solutions provide surgical site vision to front of eyes regardless of surgeon’s position and orientation.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having the significant positive impact on the surgical smart glasses market. COVID-19 vaccine has been developed by several pharmaceutical companies and is vaccination has been started. Thus, the surgical smart glasses market is growing due to the increasing awareness about remote clinical support as an option for surgeons, which is also anticipated to have a positive impact on the other segments of the market in the coming months. On the other side, disruptions in the supply chain caused due to the halt in global operations are hindering the market growth.

Increasing Number of Surgical Procedures Contribute Significantly to Market Growth

The rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), stroke, and kidney diseases is expected to have a positive impact on the number of surgical procedures across the globe.

As per the WHO, CVDs are the leading cause of mortality, and they result in the deaths of ~17.9 million people every year across the world. Moreover, as per the International Diabetes Federation’s Diabetes Atlas Ninth edition 2019, about 463 million adults (aged 20–79 years) had diabetes in 2019, and the number is expected to reach 700 million by 2045.

Such high prevalence of chronic conditions is expected to drive the number of surgical procedures, which will ultimately boost the growth of the surgical smart glasses market. For instance, according to the data published by the Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society of India in 2020, the number of bariatric surgeries in India increased by around 86.7% during 2014–2018 in India.

This development is gaining traction as Vuzix hosts its first-ever demonstration in Mandarin – expanding its reach in the Asia-Pacific.

In partnership with SoftFoundry International and Porsche China, Vuzix brings its M-Series line to one of the world’s largest markets.

Why the demonstration is so monumental:

Remote Expertise

Available on the Vuzix M400 and M4000, the FacePro Xpert System ushers in the next-generation of remote support. Businesses can use the technology to train employees, giving instructors access to their student’s point-of-view. Equipped with 4K video, the technology has the potential to significantly reduce corporate expenses. Mass adoption could eliminate “traveling for work.”

Porsche-formance

The premium automaker already benefits from the technology – connecting US-based team members with colleagues in China. This has reduced operating costs for the Vuzix customer, as technical experts can walk trainees through even the most complex procedures. This is performed hands-free from over 7,000 miles away.

Innovative Heartland

China’s steadily-growing economy has an innovative reputation. From electric cars to contactless payment tech, the marketplace of over 1 billion doesn’t shy away from advanced devices that improve the average quality of life. Businesses are expected to embrace Smart Glasses first…but consumers shouldn’t be far behind.

A hands-free world

Supporting 14 different languages, FacePro on Vuzix Smart Glasses is primed to be used across the globe.

The software is making a name for itself in several industries, including healthcare, manufacturing and telecom.