Innovations like factory automation drastically transformed the manufacturing sector. Now, Industry 4.0 is elevating industries to new levels through digital technologies like industrial computers and industrial AI computers. An immersive technology like mixed reality is a part of this combination, using virtual images to enhance manufacturing in everything from training to product design to collaboration.
- What is Mixed Reality?
- Real-World Applications: How Mixed Reality Is Revolutionizing Manufacturing
- Benefits of Mixed Reality in Manufacturing
- Overcoming Challenges and Key Considerations
What is Mixed Reality?
Simply, mixed reality (MR) creates computer-generated graphics (CGI) in a device similar to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Unlike VR, which creates a full digital environment for the viewer, MR creates CGI that overlays over real-world objects like a building or a human being. Unlike AR, whose images are static, MR images interact and respond to the viewer in real time. Thus, a viewer, in MR, can both see a virtual piece of paper hanging in front of them and make it move with a touch.
MR, like VR and AR, is usually viewed through smart glasses and headsets like Microsoft HoloLens, Meta Quest, and Apple Vision Pro.
Real-World Applications: How Mixed Reality Is Revolutionizing Manufacturing
The use of mixed reality in manufacturing sounds like something from B-movie science fiction shows. But MR was first seriously explored in 1992 through the Virtual Fixtures AR System, in which the user used an exoskeleton to interact with the virtual images seen through his goggles. The system, which explored the speed and accuracy of human movement, has found numerous applications across manufacturing.
Product Design and Prototyping
Developing a new product from scratch is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. A new car model, for example, involves hundreds, if not thousands, of hours going from blueprints to clay models to prototypes. US automaker Ford demonstrated how it utilized MR to accelerate its vehicle design and development, inexpensively generating virtual designs and prototypes. The designers then manipulate the 3D models to see how they may react in real-world conditions, such as storage space behind the backseats and how a tailgate falls in a truck. The results are then applied to the physical models.
Assembly Line Training
Training new employees on how to assemble company products is a time-consuming and tedious affair. This is especially true if the product is complex, has a lot of parts or steps, or both. MR can help by having employees train on virtual assembly lines before being placed in the real ones.
Remote Collaboration
Many of today’s manufacturers have facilities spread across the globe. The design center for toys, for example, may be located on the other side of the world from the manufacturing contractors. Teams from both can log onto industrial panel PCs and view upcoming products to ensure all specs are correct before production begins. An example of such collaboration is Thyssenkrupp, a German industrial engineering and steel giant, which equips its technicians with MR headsets when needing to connect with off-site specialists.
Predictive Maintenance and Repairs
Downtime in manufacturing, or when the production line shuts down, can cost thousands to even millions of dollars as profit-making productivity grinds to a halt. Many manufacturers utilize predictive maintenance to prevent downtime. They do so by viewing data visualizations of their manufacturing processes through 3D digital twins, identifying any issues, and making necessary repairs and replacements before any downtime occurs.
Quality Control and Inspection
Quality checks of products can sometimes be difficult, as defects may be complex for inspection teams to spot. MR, though, can create virtual overlays in rugged industrial tablets so inspectors can spot any deviation with a literal glance. BMW does just that at its Munich tooling center, superimposing MR onto its car body tools to check the alignment of drill holes and features.
Benefits of Mixed Reality in Manufacturing
The benefits of MR are numerous. Three major areas include boosts in efficiency, safety, and collaboration.
Efficiency
Workers can see step-by-step instructions, procedures, and optimal paths for their tasks in real-time via their MR devices. They can use the overlays to guide them in real-time as they move the real-world objects to their correct position. These and more aid in streamlining complex tasks and improving efficiency.
Safety
Using MR, employees can learn to operate complex machinery, procedures, and safety practices and protocols without concern of damaging such machinery. They can train for hazardous environments, such as oil and gas refineries or mines, without the associated risks of working on-site until they’re ready. These and more create a safer work environment.
Collaboration
As mentioned above, mixed reality in manufacturing enables teams to collaborate on the same project, regardless of their location. They can view the virtual product, make changes, and watch the results of those changes in real-time. This saves the company not only the costs for blueprints and physical models, but also the travel expenses of bringing together so many experts.
Overcoming Challenges and Key Considerations
Mixed reality in manufacturing is slowly making inroads into various manufacturing industries, as seen above with Ford Motor Co. and Thyssenkrupp. The global mixed reality market is predicted to reach 1224 billion USD by 2032, a heady increase from 52 billion USD in 2023. Manufacturers looking to invest should consider the following:
Hardware and Software Costs
MR centers around smart glasses and headsets (and certain kinds of tablets). None are cheap: smart glasses can cost between $100 - $700+, while MR headsets range between $500 - $3500+.
The costs of MR software vary and are dependent on the pricing structures. Software costs for extended reality are monthly and, like many enterprise software, are based on the number of users. Basic MR apps will differ from those paid out annually. In general, companies should expect to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars yearly for software.
Integration with Legacy Systems
Many companies continue to use equipment that the original manufacturer no longer supports (legacy systems). Such companies should collaborate with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) of MR systems to ensure both can integrate effectively through interfaces like legacy ports.
Workforce Training and Adoption
Finally, manufacturers need to train employees how to use MR technologies. How can one make the headset more comfortable? How does one interact with the images? What are the new steps to accomplish tasks once done without MR? Again, working with the OEM should make such training easier and less costly.
Keep Mixed Reality in Manufacturing Real With Cybernet Computers
Mixed reality creates 3D images for users to both view and interact with. Industries like manufacturing are using MR in areas ranging from product design to employee training to collaboration.
MR requires powerful hardware and software. Contact an expert at Cybernet Manufacturing to provide such PCs, built to handle the many unique challenges of their respective industries. We can further customize our computers, as we’re an OEM and have complete control of their designs and BoM. Let us partner with you to maximize your MR efforts and accomplishments.