Hello! AR and VR are fashionable things, now only lazy people (or those who simply don’t need it) have not made applications using them. From Oculus to MSQRD, from simple toys that delight kids with the appearance of a dinosaur in the room, to applications like “Arrange the furniture in your two-room apartment” from IKEA and more. There are many application options here.
And then there is not the most popular in comparison with them, but actually a useful area - teaching a person new skills and simplifying his daily work. Here, as an example, we can cite simulators for doctors, pilots and even law enforcement agencies. We at SIBUR use these technologies as part of the digitalization of production. The main consumer is the direct production employee in gloves and a helmet, who is at the enterprise, at high-risk facilities.
My name is Alexander Leus, I'm an Industry 4.0 Product Owner, and I'll talk about the specifics here.
Industry 4.0
In general, in neighboring Europe it is customary to consider everything related to digital in the enterprise in the general sense as industry 4.0. We have 4.0 - these are digital products that are somehow connected with hardware. First of all, of course, this is the industrial Internet of things, IIoT, plus a direction related to video analytics (there are a huge number of cameras at the plant, and images from them need to be analyzed), and also a direction called XR (AR + VR).
The main task of IIoT is to increase the level of automation in production, reduce the influence of the human factor on the control of non-critical technological processes, and reduce the cost of operating installations.
Video analytics at SIBUR consists of two main parts — process surveillance and situational analytics. Technological supervision allows you to control the production parameters themselves (as we wrote here , for example, or quality control of rubber briquettes according to the image of its crumbs). And the situational one, as the name implies, monitors the onset of certain events: one of the employees ended up in the area where he should not be (or where there should be no one at all), steam jets suddenly began to escape from the pipe and the like.
But why do we need XR.
The term was coined at the end of the year before last in the consortium Khronos Group, which creates standards for working with graphics. The letter "X" itself is not deciphered in any way here, the point is this:
XR includes everything that is somehow connected with interactive computer graphics, CGI, AR + VR directions, as well as the technology stack accompanying all this goodness. In our work, XR allows us to solve a number of important tasks.
First, we give a person a new tool that simplifies his life (at least during working hours). We offer a whole platform based on video technologies and AR, which allows you to directly connect a production employee (operator) at the plant and a remote expert - the first one walks around the enterprise in AR glasses, broadcasting everything that happens on video (not much different from a tourist walk with a GoPro, except for the entourage ), the second one on his monitor sees what is happening on behalf of the operator and can display the necessary prompts to the first one. For example, in what sequence to disassemble the unit, what parameters to set, and the like.
Secondly, we upgrade the skills of employees. This is a story about the constant updating of knowledge. For example, a new employee comes to us, and at the beginning of work, his qualifications have some definite meaning, if he is after a technical school, he remembers almost everything that he was taught. At least that's how it should be. After working for several years, he can either improve his skills or lose his skills a little, it all depends on what exactly he was doing, because even a large amount of useful knowledge can be pushed into the far corner by a daily routine.
For example, during his shift, some event occurs, unplanned, an emergency stop. And here it is important what kind of knowledge the employee has at this moment, whether he will be able to complete all the tasks necessary in an emergency right now or not. It's one thing if you work with planned repairs on average once every 3 years, here you can refresh your knowledge on your own (or with our help) a couple of months before the planned work, another thing is such a production surprise. But you haven’t finished your tea and your qualifications are at a lower level than what is required right now.
In such cases, our AR platform helps - we give it to an employee, and it turns out that, together with a remote specialist, they already make the necessary decisions faster on the go.
Another area of application for XR is simulators and simulators, which allow you to work out the correct reaction to possible situations in production. Now we have a control simulator for working with compressors, and soon we will launch another one for working with hazardous reagents.
In addition to simulators, we also create detailed virtual tips. For example, our operational staff in the tasks include switching electrical panels when electricity needs to be supplied to different areas. The classic approach to creating such instructions is photo instruction or applications with interactive 360-degree photo panoramas. And with the help of glasses, wearable video cameras and materials developed by us, we will be able to form a detailed knowledge base on maintenance and repair technologies.
By the way, such a base itself is already a full-fledged digital product of wide coverage, on the basis of which new simulators can be built, plus this knowledge can be transported through the platform, helping people on the ground to make operational decisions. The guys are already building a data lake, which you can read about .
The AR platform is used here as an interface for visualizing advice - for example, a more experienced colleague (or AI) can tell you that you need to increase the temperature in that area. That is, you just need to approach the compressor - and advice will appear in the glasses.
To put it simply, the AR platform consists of a media resource with a database and a media server, to which specialists in AR glasses can connect to perform certain actions at the factory. And specialists can already connect to them from their computers, these can be both our internal experts and external ones - vendors and equipment suppliers. The process looks something like this: an employee at the plant performs a certain operation, and in order to make a decision, he needs information, or installation supervision or commissioning work is carried out. A picture from the employee’s glasses is transmitted to the monitors to specialists, they can send him “hints” from their computers, both in the text, simply by sending advice to the interface of the glasses, and in graphics - the employee sends a photo from the glasses, the specialists quickly add infographics on the screen and send info back for clarity and speed up communication.
And to make it even easier, it is possible to create automatic access to the database, so that the employee can immediately receive information about it and the necessary actions by the label on the device case.
Implementation and barriers
It's one thing to come up with all this and even implement it on hardware under normal conditions. Well, seriously, what's so complicated, I deployed the environment, connected AR glasses to the laptop, everything works and everything is cool.
And then you come to the factory.
By the way, many such stories about "We have excellent industrial products" quickly end when the product enters the actual industrial environment. We have a lot of restrictions here. The wireless data network is not secure = there is no wireless network. There is a wired connection that connects to the Internet.
But (you already understood, right?) the Internet is also insecure = a proxy is used for protection, and most of the ports are closed.
Therefore, it is not enough to come up with a cool solution for the industry that will help users, you should immediately think about how to get all this into the industry in the conditions of the existing restrictions in it. And the situation now is such that such an approach within the industry has not yet been implemented.
We cannot just make a server with everything necessary for the platform to work, leave it at the factory and leave with our heads held high - no one will connect to this server. It also makes no sense to put a dedicated laptop next to it, it spoils the whole idea - we do all this in order to be able to connect with each other both the site employee in Nizhnevartovsk and the person from the plant in Pyt-Yakh (and we have a plant there, yes), and a German from the vendor. And so that they can normally discuss the repair of a pump or compressor together from their workplace (or on their own two feet when an employee is on site). And no one will have to fly anywhere, coordinate business trips, obtain visas, waste time and money.
I connected - I saw everything - I decided everything, well, or suggested a solution and went / flew to help.
Another specificity that puts additional limits is our work with gas. And this is always a matter of explosion protection and the requirements of specific premises. When creating a device, you should always ask yourself the question - who will use it and under what conditions? Some of us work in the repair shop, where they carry out maintenance and repairs, some directly in production, some in server rooms, some at substations.
Ideally, for each of the tasks and each use case, you need to make your own device.
There are no problems with the presence of AR glasses in the XR sphere. There are problems with their application in the industry. Take the same Google Glass, when they were tested in 2014, it turned out that they work for 20 minutes on a single charge, and in the process they heat up the face quite well. It is, of course, good when it is -40 on the site in Tobolsk, and you have something warm on your face. But still not that.
One Japanese company came closer, it already had industrial samples for implementation at power facilities in the same 2014. In principle, the idea itself with AR equipment has been on the market for a long time and, by and large, has changed little. For example, helmets for pilots are almost the same now, just the systems have become smaller, the power lasts for a longer time, and the resolution of microdisplays and video cameras has improved significantly.
Here it is also necessary to take into account that such devices are made monocular and binocular. And it makes sense. If in your work you need to read some information, examine documents and the like, then you need a binocular device to form an image for two eyes at once. If you just need to transmit a video stream and a photo, while receiving information in the format of short tips and parameters, then the capabilities of a monocular device will suffice.
Monoculars even have a sample with explosion protection, RealWear HMT-1z1, produced at the German iSafe plant, but this is generally the only sample from serial products. A solid monocular device with explosion protection and a small monocular screen. But sometimes you need binoculars. For example, a power engineer who is involved in operational switching needs a larger screen in order to see the entire switching scheme. The standard characteristics of the camcorder are also important here in terms of the very quality of shooting and its convenience - so that nothing blocks the viewing angle, so that there is a normal autofocus (twist something small with gloves on or examine small chips on the details in a not weak minus, catching focus, it’s so your own pleasure).
But for employees of repair shops, everything is a little simpler, there are different requirements for explosion safety, which allows you to choose devices from a wider range. The main thing here is simply the quality - for the device to work, not slow down, it was made soundly in an industrial design, so that it does not break under mechanical stress, and so on. In general, a normal serial piece of iron, not a prototype.
Infrastructure
And one more thing, without thinking through which it is impossible to push a solution into the industrial world - infrastructure. There is such a thing as digital ready infrastructure. On the one hand, this is the same marketing hype as a Windows 7 ready mouse for a computer. On the other hand, there is a rather important meaning here. You will not use a mobile phone in the absence of a base station in range? Well, OK, you can use it, read a book, look at photos, etc., but there is no call now.
All digital products fall on the infrastructure. Without it, there is no working digital product. And if very often digitalization is understood as simply transferring everything from paper to digital, for example, a person had a paper pass in a company - they made it digital, and so on, then in our case this whole thing is based on tasks, on what exactly needs to be done.
Let's say there is a simple wish - an infrastructure for providing communication. And the area of the plant is about 600 football fields. Is it worth it to build infrastructure here? If so, on which particular areas, squares? The sites are all different, for each it is necessary to write technical specifications. And most importantly, do the people who work here really need this infrastructure?
Digital products in production are always a phased work, and the thing is that you won’t understand how and what to do with the infrastructure until you bring the product itself. You brought the product, but there is no infrastructure. I deployed wireless networks on crutches from available operators, I realized that it works, but I want stability - and you roll back, as in the good old Soviet system approach when designing. And you begin to build the infrastructure that was not here and exactly in the form that users need.
Somewhere it’s enough to put a couple of access points, somewhere there is an installation with a bunch of stairs and passages as high as a 20-story building, and here at least hang yourself with points and transmitters, but you won’t get the same network quality as indoors, so it makes sense to illuminate install and use portable hotspots such as those used by miners (explosion-proof!). Each object has its own specifics that require its own solution.
People
Having created the infrastructure, dragged the necessary devices into the industry and adjusted everything from a technical point of view, remember that there are still people with whom you need to go through three stages in order to start using the product.
- Learn in detail, show your own example.
- Teach how to use it yourself, test after that, as far as everyone understood everything.
- Ensure the survival of the product.
In fact, you give people something that they definitely did not use before. Now, if you transplanted relatives from push-button clamshells to modern smartphones, there is about the same story. Show the device, where the video camera is, and how to customize the microdisplay for yourself, and where to press something for communication - and so on, so on, so on.
And here there is one ambush.
You come to people and bring a product, talk about it. Employees can agree, not really argue, with interest and enthusiasm to learn from you how to use this new device. They can even quickly remember everything the first time. They can brilliantly pass the device knowledge test and use it as confidently as you.
And then it turns out that you did not specify in advance which of their team would wear these glasses directly on the court. And it turns out that completely different people need to be retrained.
But you will have several employees who are well versed in a product that will not be used.
We also have a short video showing how it works.
Source: habr.com