Communications of the ACM
IBM Brings Augmented Reality, Robotics to Field Engineers
The mobile maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) prototype is designed to help field engineers accurately locate equipment, provide them with critical information, and receive real-time visual support from remotely situated supervising experts.
Credit: Engineering & Technology magazine
IBM researchers have developed a new system to deliver information and remote expertise to field engineers performing maintenance and repairs on critical equipment. The new system is a mobile maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) prototype that is designed to help manufacturers and companies supplying and maintaining high-value machinery.
The new mobile system uses a combination of augmented reality and robotics to help field engineers accurately locate equipment. The project is the result of a collaboration between IBM and the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC).
"IBM's MRO prototype is an exciting addition to the innovative toolset used by the AMRC’s researchers and engineers," says AMRC researcher Rab Scott.
The new MRO system also provides supervisors with complete visual independence and a more stable video image, according to IBM.
"The MRO prototype brings together two innovative IBM technologies, developed in our European research labs in Hursley and Haifa, into a single solution for our clients," says IBM researcher Richard Lanyon-Hogg. "It offers manufacturers the opportunity to lower their costs, provide just-in-time knowledge transfer and reduce the personal risk to engineers working in difficult environments."
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