Augmented reality has been around for some time now, but until recently, the friction of using it has outweighed the potential benefits it can provide. I'm sure many of you can agree.

My brother (an Automation Engineer) and I (a Programmer) were and are convinced that the technology would soon catch up and so we began to build an industrial AR HMI app. But one broad question we've been wondering is, are there actually any Automation Engineers who have had hands on experience with Augmented Reality?

We asked dozens on Engineers in our network who were all extremely kind to give some very thoughtful responses to this question, and thought it was worth sharing here.

Out of the 40 responses -

• Only 1 person was actively using it.
• Only 4 people had used it before.
• 55% would be open to using it in the future.

Here were some of the more interesting quotes -

• "I design instrumentation and electrical systems for a specific use and we incorporate some augmented reality into the design for the benefit of the end operator and servicing" - Specialist Systems Engineer.
• "My impression: its cool, but would not want to use it for more than 30 min. The weight of the hardware disorientation are the reasons" - Electrical Engineer.
• "I think it could be utilized well with GIS data and infield asbuilts. I’ve seen people overlaying photos/asbuilt data into head sets so you can 'see through' the ground" - Engineering Technician.

Hopefully this provides some interesting perspectives to you like it did for us. There are 37 other very interesting and unique responses that can be found at the original post in case you are curious on reading more.

My question for those of you here who have experience with AR in your day-to-day, do you think it has a future within the industrial world? I believe it firmly does but would love to hear some more opinions from those who have actually used it, or at least plan on using it in the future.

We own a Hololens2, and clearly the wearable tech is far from being practical. But now that mobile phones can pick up on persistent AR content extremely fast and handle 3d models with ease, the technology is showing more potential than was possible even just a year ago.

Thanks for any insight.

 

Where's all this truly useful data that magically appears on this heavy pair of goggles, that justifies whatever CAPEX number you're dangling in front of us, going to come from?

Process instrument manufacturers cannot even get basic, critical data into their printed manuals for current products. I wasted 4 hours today on just such a case. All they had to say was "the default xml configuration file matches to the default obsolete product config file". 13 words. Doesn't even need a heavy pair of glasses to handle it. And it's not even the cost of ink, with everything in pdf nowadays. But could they put that 13 words in their 77 page manual? Noooo. Did any of the tech support guy know what the default config is/represents? Noooo.

Huge disconnect here.

Yesterday, I gave up trying to get a turbine meter manufacturer to tell me what a reasonable voltage output was from their line sensor, so the problem could be approached as divide and conquor as to whether the sensor is faulty or the electronics module. Nope, it's proprietary information.

I'm sure the upcoming generation will hack the work version of the AR goggles so they can be used for video games, but I can't bridge the reality gap between the ya-da ya-da info that is available and the info that needs to be available but isn't; and a pricey pair of augmented reality goggles isn't going to solve the problem.

 

Where's all this truly useful data that magically appears on this heavy pair of goggles, that justifies whatever CAPEX number you're dangling in front of us, going to come from?

Process instrument manufacturers cannot even get basic, critical data into their printed manuals for current products. I wasted 4 hours today on just such a case. All they had to say was "the default xml configuration file matches to the default obsolete product config file". 13 words. Doesn't even need a heavy pair of glasses to handle it. And it's not even the cost of ink, with everything in pdf nowadays. But could they put that 13 words in their 77 page manual? Noooo. Did any of the tech support guy know what the default config is/represents? Noooo.

Huge disconnect here.

Yesterday, I gave up trying to get a turbine meter manufacturer to tell me what a reasonable voltage output was from their line sensor, so the problem could be approached as divide and conquor as to whether the sensor is faulty or the electronics module. Nope, it's proprietary information.

I'm sure the upcoming generation will hack the work version of the AR goggles so they can be used for video games, but I can't bridge the reality gap between the ya-da ya-da info that is available and the info that needs to be available but isn't; and a pricey pair of augmented reality goggles isn't going to solve the problem.

Hugely insightful response. It seems the issue is not in how the data is presented, but in having access to that data in the first place. In this situations you currently faced, would AR goggles or an AR mobile app be able to help? Maybe a little, but not really it seems. Rather the issue lies with the manufacturers ability to provide the needed information. Trying to do your job and then ending up with "sorry, it's proprietary information" would be extremely annoying.

Appreciate your insight. Definitely a huge disconnect going on.