Reducing the Learning to Earning Cycle via Up-Skilling in AR/VR

COVID-19 has re-shaped our lifestyles in unexpected ways and the lasting impact it caused is here to stay for a long time if not ever. In the industrial sector, the slump in the markets have forced decision-makers to double think on new investments on capital goods. This will give rise to the necessity of maintaining and servicing the existing machinery.

Thus, up-skilling the machine operators on the usage and troubleshooting of machines will be a critical factor for industries to sustain. The below are the impacts of post-COVID and necessity for up-skilling:

Restrictions in travel leads to unavailability of skilled resources at site. Hence, machine operator should learn to manage the operations without expert being physically present

Even if restriction are off, travel costs, boarding and lodging costs for the expert service technician could be substantially saved with up-skilling the workforce

Delay in new investments (due to the financial crunch) necessitates that operator be skilled in maintaining the existing machinery

VR based training

The VR based training is most effective in making the operator on both working with the machine and troubleshooting the machine. The VR environment enables the learner to be fully immersed in the learning process without any distraction. This quick learning process reduces the lead time from learning to earning cycle for the operator. Also, the various scenarios of usage which could be physically not possible/difficult to reproduce will now be possible in a virtual environment, this would reduce expensive mistakes on real machines.

Advantages:

Realistic gamified experiential training

Learner is fully immersed with no other distraction

Ability to simulate scenarios which is difficult to reproduce physically

Drawbacks:

Need a 3d model of the machine

Invest on 3d modeling and creating simulations

Update the 3d content for new scenarios

AR based Training

Another approach of the practical training on using or troubleshooting a real machine can be provided in AR. In this method, when the trainee scans the machine through a smartphone, texts, videos and photos can be displayed on chosen spots of interest (hereafter referred as ‘floatspot’). This approach does not need any special 3d modeling or animations, just some videos and photos of the training steps can be utilized to provide the training. Unlike VR, the content is provided right next to the real machine and thus increases the confidence for the operator to try out the troubleshooting on a real machine.

Advantages:

Very little entry barrier to try

No special hardware or investment required

The content can be updated anytime

Need not depend on 3rd party for creating content

Drawbacks:

Less effective than immersive VR experience

Holding smartphone for long time is cumbersome

AR based Remote Troubleshooting using AR-enabled Video Chat

New trend of video calling has impacts across domains like education, entertainment, day to day communication, meetings, exhibitions etc. Surprisingly, servicing a machine scenario needs a unique set of features that involves better collaboration between the expert and the operator.

The above image is taken from AR-based video calling where the the expert collaborates with the operator over real time through video call via AR-markings

This kind of interaction not only makes the troubleshooting of the machine easier but also the operator gets trained over time to solve the complicated problems.

Advantages:

Real-time guidance from an expert

Hands-on experience along with transfer of knowledge

No entry barrier. Hence, easier to take the first step

Drawbacks:

Expert availability is necessary

Good internet speed and connectivity is necessary

Digitisation of User Manuals

The user manuals and docs will soon and slowly be eradicated with the help of the AR. The video/image of performing an action can be floating in the machine in the relevant area. This gives any user with very little knowledge on the machine an opportunity to easily understand the action to be performed because the exact video of the scenario is juxtaposed right near the place of interest.

Conclusion

Thanks for sticking around till the conclusion :-) if you see any other way up-skilling can be improved over AR please let me know. Eager to hear