March 2019

63 www.drivesncontrols.com March 2019 SERVICE AND REPAIRS n Visualising the future of maintenance V irtual technologies have been around for almost half a century, with sectors such as entertainment, education and design all adopting aspects of these technologies. However, it has only been in the past five years that augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have started to make their way into industrial environments. Their adoption is linked to the increasing use of predictive maintenance to monitor the condition of plant equipment. Enabled by Industry 4.0 technologies and the increasing networking of equipment such as PLCs and Scada systems, predictive maintenance helps engineers to anticpate when equipment may need to be serviced or replaced, allowing them to intervene before a system fails. AR and VR take maintenance one step further. By using a smartphone, pair of “smart glasses” or a headset, maintenance engineers can view a digital representation of a fault and, more importantly, how it might be solved. VR builds on this even further by placing the engineer in a fully immersive digital environment. With the headset on, the engineer can speed up time, using data to pinpoint visually exactly when the system may fail. This level of maintenance allows repairs to be predicted and planned for, and ensures that the correct replacement parts are ordered well in advance. A helping hand As the engineering skills gap continues to grow, with 182,000 people with engineering skills forecast to be needed every year, having a team with the relevant skills may not always be possible. The growing gap means that many engineers do not have the capabilities to deal with specific equipment faults, until they have undergone internal training. This affects productivity significantly, because rather than hitting the ground running, the engineers will need to undergo extensive training before work can commence. As AR technology advances, one of the biggest applications will see offsite suppliers providing visual support through smart devices. Rather than a simple phone call, the AR system will allow suppliers to show their customers exactly how to service or replace a part. By providing them access to relevant maintenance data, the supplier will be able to suggest the best course of action, which may include sending one of its own engineers out to assist. With data becoming increasingly accessible through the cloud, this level of support builds on the growing servitisation trend, where end-users subscribe as part of a software service model. It is also thought that AR and VR can help to tackle the STEM skills shortage directly from a training perspective. Not only can budding engineers use these technologies to put theory into practice without affecting the day-to-day running of a plant, but VR can also be incorporated into training environments, allowing new engineers and apprentices to explore the plant environment digitally. While the future looks bright for the use of VR and AR in engineering, there are still challenges that lie ahead – mainly due to the complex nature of engineering systems and models. That said, both technologies are already making an enormous impact on the sector, because they allow access to situations that would otherwise be difficult to visualise or might be inaccessible. In the coming years, I expect to see a far more integrated approach between hardware and software systems. n Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are no longer limited to the entertainment and design sectors, and are starting tomake their way into industrial environments. Nick Boughton, digital lead at the systems integrator Boulting Technology, explains how AR andVR technologies are re-de ning plant maintenance. Siemens is using VR technologies at its drive manufacturing plant in Congleton to simulate and optimise assembly processes and to design workcells.