Why do we need the production of AR and VR
Hello! AR and VR - fashionable things, now applications with their use are not made just lazy (or the one who simply does not need it). From Oculus to MSQRD, from simple toys that delight the kids with the advent of a dinosaur in the room, to applications like “Arrange the furniture in your two-room” from IKEA and so on. There are many uses here.
And then there is not the most popular in comparison with them, but in fact a useful area - teaching a person new skills and simplifying his daily work. Here you can take as an example simulators for doctors, pilots and even law enforcement agencies. We in SIBUR apply these technologies within the framework of digitalization of production. The main consumer is a direct employee of production in gloves and a helmet, which is located at the enterprise, at high-risk facilities.
')
My name is Alexander Leus, I am a Product Owner of Industry 4.0, and I will tell you about the features that arise here.
In general, in neighboring Europe it is considered to be industry 4.0 everything related to digital at the enterprise in a general sense. We have 4.0 - these are digital products that are somehow related to hardware. First of all, of course, this is the industrial Internet of things, IIoT, plus the direction associated with video analytics (there are a huge number of cameras in the factory, and images from them need to be analyzed), and also the direction called XR (AR + VR).
The main objective of IIoT is to increase the level of automation in production, reduce the influence of the human factor on the management of non-critical technological processes, and reduce the cost of operating the facilities.
Video analytics in SIBUR consists of two main parts - technological observation and situational analyst. Technological observation allows you to control the production parameters themselves (as we wrote here about the extruder , for example, or the quality control of rubber briquettes in the image of its crumbs). And situational, as the name implies, monitors the onset of certain events: one of the employees was in the area where it should not be (or where there should be no one at all), suddenly jets of steam began to break out of the pipe and the like.
But for what we XR.
The term was invented at the end of the year before last in the Khronos Group consortium, which creates standards for working with graphics. The letter “X” itself is not deciphered here, the thing is:
XR includes everything that is somehow related to interactive computer graphics, CGI, AR + VR, as well as the technology stack that accompanies all this good. 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 the production employee (operator) at the plant and the remote expert - the first one walks around the company in AR-glasses, broadcasting everything that happens on video (not much different from the tourist walk with GoPro, except for the entourage ), the second in his monitor sees what is happening from the face of the operator and can display the necessary prompts to the first. For example, in what sequence to disassemble the unit, what parameters to set and the like.
Secondly, we pump the skills of employees. There is generally a story about the constant updating of knowledge. For example, an employee comes to us a new one, and at the beginning of his qualification has some definite value, if he is after a technical school - he remembers almost everything he was taught. At least it should be. After working for several years, he can either improve his qualifications, or lose a little skills, it all depends strongly on what he did, because even a large baggage of useful knowledge, a daily routine can push into the far corner.
For example, during its change an event occurs, an unplanned, emergency stop. And here it is important what kind of knowledge the employee has at that moment, whether he will master all the necessary tasks in an emergency right now or not. It's one thing if you work with scheduled repairs on average once every 3 years, then 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. And you did not finish the tea and your qualifications are at a lower level than 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 are already quicker making the necessary decisions on the go.
Another field of application for XR is simulators and simulators that allow you to work out the correct response to possible production situations. 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 have switchboards, when electricity must be supplied to different areas. The classic approach to creating such instructions is photo-instrumentation or applications with interactive 360-degree photo-panoramas. And with the help of glasses, wearable 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 with a wide coverage, on the basis of which you can build new simulators, plus this knowledge can be transported through the platform, helping people on the ground make operational decisions. The guys are already building a data lake, which you can read about here .
The AR platform is used here as an interface for visualizing tips — for example, a more experienced colleague (or AI) can tell you that the temperature of the water in that area needs to be done more. That is, you just need to go to the compressor - and advice will appear in the glasses.
If it is simplified, then the AR platform consists of a media resource with a database and a media server, to which experts in AR glasses can connect, performing certain actions at the factory. And experts from their computers can already connect to them, it can be both our internal experts, and external - vendors and equipment suppliers. The process looks like this: an employee at the plant performs a certain operation, and to make a decision, he needs information, or installation supervision or commissioning is carried out. An image of the employee’s glasses is transmitted to the monitors on the monitors, they can send him “hints” from their computers, just as in the text, simply sending tips to the points interface and graphics — the employee sends the photos from the glasses, the specialists quickly add an infographic on the screen and send info back for clarity and speed up communication.
And in order to make it even easier, it is possible to create an automatic access to the database so that the employee on the label on the device’s body will immediately receive information about it and the necessary actions.
It's one thing to invent all of this and even implement it on hardware under normal conditions. Well, seriously, what a difficult thing, unfolded Wednesday, connected AR-glasses to the laptop, everything works and everything is cool.
And then you come to the factory.
By the way, many similar stories about “We have great industrial products” quickly end when the product gets into really industrial conditions. We have a lot of restrictions here. Wireless data network is not secure = no wireless network. There is a wired one, which is used to communicate with the Internet.
But (you already understood, yes?) The Internet is also unsafe = 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 push all this into the industry in the conditions of its existing restrictions. And the situation now is that such an approach has not yet been implemented within the industry.
We cannot just make a server with everything necessary for the platform to work, leave it at the factory and leave with the head held high - no one will connect to this server. It makes no sense to put a dedicated laptop near it either, it spoils the whole idea - we are doing all this in order to be able to connect with each other both the site employee in Nizhnevartovsk and the person from the factory in Pyt-Yakh (and there we have a factory, Yes), and the German from the vendor. And so that they can together properly discuss the repair of a pump or compressor, each from its own workplace (or on two, when an employee is at the site). And no one will have to fly anywhere, coordinate business trips, get visas, spend time and money.
I connected - I saw everything - I decided everything, or I suggested a solution and went / flew to help.
Other specifics that expose additional frameworks are our work with gas. And it is always a question of explosion protection and the requirements of specific premises. When creating a device, you should always ask yourself the question - who will use it at all and in what conditions? Someone works for us in the repair shop, where he carries out maintenance and repair, someone directly in production, someone in the server room, someone in substations.
Ideally, for each of the tasks and each use scenario, you need to make your device.
With the presence in the field of XR AR-points no problem. 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 20 minutes on a single charge, and in the process they work their face well. It is, of course, good when there is -40 on the site in Tobolsk, and you have something warm on your face. But still not the same.
One Japanese company came closer, it already had industrial designs for implementation at power facilities in the same 2014. In principle, the very idea of ​​AR-equipment on the market for a long time and by and large does not change much. For example, helmets for pilots - now everything is almost the same, just the systems have become smaller, there is enough power supply for a longer time, and the resolution of microdisplays and video cameras has improved significantly.
Here we must also take into account that such devices make monocular and binocular. And it makes sense. If in your work you need to read some information, view documents and the like, then you need a binocular device to form a picture 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, the possibilities of a monocular device will suffice.
In monoculars, there is even a sample with the presence of explosion protection, RealWear HMT-1z1, produced at the German plant of iSafe, but this is generally the only sample of serial products. Solid monocular device with explosion protection and a small monocular screen. But sometimes binoculars are needed. Say, the energy that is involved in the operational switching, you need a bigger screen to see the entire switching scheme in its entirety. The standard characteristics of the video camera in terms of the very quality of shooting and its convenience are also important here - so that nothing obstructs the viewing angle, so that there is a normal autofocus (to twist something small in gloves or to examine small chips on the details in a weak minus, catching the focus, this is so enjoy yourself).
But for repair shop employees everything is a bit simpler, there are other requirements for explosion safety, which allows you to choose devices from a wider model range. Here, the main thing is simply the quality - so that the device works, does not slow down, it was done soundly in the industrial design, so that it would not break under mechanical stress and so on. In general, a normal serial piece of iron, not a prototype.
And one more thing, without thinking about which, not to push the solution into the industrial world is infrastructure. There is such a thing as a digital ready infrastructure. On the one hand, this is the same marketing hyip as the Windows 7 ready mouse for a computer. On the other hand, there is a rather important meaning. You will not use a mobile phone in the absence of a base station in range? Well, OK, you can use, read a book, see photos and stuff, but now there is no call.
All digital products fall on infrastructure. No it - no working digital product. And if very often digitalization is understood as simply transferring everything from paper to number, for example, a person’s paper pass was in a company - they made digital, and so on, then we have all this business starting from tasks, from what exactly we should do.
Suppose there is a simple wish - the infrastructure for communication. A plant area of ​​about 600 football fields. Is infrastructure worth doing here? If so, on which areas, squares? The plots are all different, each one needs to write TZ. Well and most importantly - but the people who work here, do you need this infrastructure?
Digital products in production is always a phased work, and the thing is that you do not understand how and what to do with the infrastructure until you drag the product itself. You brought a product, but there is no infrastructure. I unfolded wireless networks from available operators on crutches, I realized that it works, but I want stability - and roll back, as in the good old Soviet systems approach in design. And you begin to build the infrastructure that was not here and precisely in the form in which the users need.
Somewhere it is enough to put a couple of access points, somewhere there is an installation with a bunch of stairs and transitions high from a 20-storey house, and then at least hang on with the points and transmitters, but you will not receive such a network quality as indoors, so it makes sense to light up install and use portable access points such as those used by miners (explosion-proof!). Each object has its own specifics that require its solution.
Having created the infrastructure, dragging the necessary devices into the industry and adjusting everything from a technical point of view, remember - there are still people with whom you have to go through three stages to start using the product.
In fact, you give people something that they haven't used before. Now, if you transplanted relatives from push-button cots to modern smartphones, there’s about the same story. Show the device, where is the video camera, and how to set up a microdisplay for yourself, and where to click for communication — and so on, so on.
And there is one ambush.
You come to the people and bring the product, talk about it. Employees can agree, not really argue, learn with interest and enthusiasm from you to use this new device. They can even quickly remember everything from the first time. They can brilliantly pass the knowledge test of the device and use it as confidently as you do.
And then it turns out that you did not specify in advance who exactly of their team would be wearing these glasses directly on the court. And it turns out that you need to re-train completely different people.
But you will have several employees who perfectly understood the product, which will not be used.
And we have a short video about how it works.
And then there is not the most popular in comparison with them, but in fact a useful area - teaching a person new skills and simplifying his daily work. Here you can take as an example simulators for doctors, pilots and even law enforcement agencies. We in SIBUR apply these technologies within the framework of digitalization of production. The main consumer is a direct employee of production in gloves and a helmet, which is located at the enterprise, at high-risk facilities.
')
My name is Alexander Leus, I am a Product Owner of Industry 4.0, and I will tell you about the features that arise here.
Industry 4.0
In general, in neighboring Europe it is considered to be industry 4.0 everything related to digital at the enterprise in a general sense. We have 4.0 - these are digital products that are somehow related to hardware. First of all, of course, this is the industrial Internet of things, IIoT, plus the direction associated with video analytics (there are a huge number of cameras in the factory, and images from them need to be analyzed), and also the direction called XR (AR + VR).
The main objective of IIoT is to increase the level of automation in production, reduce the influence of the human factor on the management of non-critical technological processes, and reduce the cost of operating the facilities.
Video analytics in SIBUR consists of two main parts - technological observation and situational analyst. Technological observation allows you to control the production parameters themselves (as we wrote here about the extruder , for example, or the quality control of rubber briquettes in the image of its crumbs). And situational, as the name implies, monitors the onset of certain events: one of the employees was in the area where it should not be (or where there should be no one at all), suddenly jets of steam began to break out of the pipe and the like.
But for what we XR.
The term was invented at the end of the year before last in the Khronos Group consortium, which creates standards for working with graphics. The letter “X” itself is not deciphered here, the thing is:
XR includes everything that is somehow related to interactive computer graphics, CGI, AR + VR, as well as the technology stack that accompanies all this good. 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 the production employee (operator) at the plant and the remote expert - the first one walks around the company in AR-glasses, broadcasting everything that happens on video (not much different from the tourist walk with GoPro, except for the entourage ), the second in his monitor sees what is happening from the face of the operator and can display the necessary prompts to the first. For example, in what sequence to disassemble the unit, what parameters to set and the like.
Secondly, we pump the skills of employees. There is generally a story about the constant updating of knowledge. For example, an employee comes to us a new one, and at the beginning of his qualification has some definite value, if he is after a technical school - he remembers almost everything he was taught. At least it should be. After working for several years, he can either improve his qualifications, or lose a little skills, it all depends strongly on what he did, because even a large baggage of useful knowledge, a daily routine can push into the far corner.
For example, during its change an event occurs, an unplanned, emergency stop. And here it is important what kind of knowledge the employee has at that moment, whether he will master all the necessary tasks in an emergency right now or not. It's one thing if you work with scheduled repairs on average once every 3 years, then 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. And you did not finish the tea and your qualifications are at a lower level than 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 are already quicker making the necessary decisions on the go.
Another field of application for XR is simulators and simulators that allow you to work out the correct response to possible production situations. 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 have switchboards, when electricity must be supplied to different areas. The classic approach to creating such instructions is photo-instrumentation or applications with interactive 360-degree photo-panoramas. And with the help of glasses, wearable 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 with a wide coverage, on the basis of which you can build new simulators, plus this knowledge can be transported through the platform, helping people on the ground make operational decisions. The guys are already building a data lake, which you can read about here .
The AR platform is used here as an interface for visualizing tips — for example, a more experienced colleague (or AI) can tell you that the temperature of the water in that area needs to be done more. That is, you just need to go to the compressor - and advice will appear in the glasses.
If it is simplified, then the AR platform consists of a media resource with a database and a media server, to which experts in AR glasses can connect, performing certain actions at the factory. And experts from their computers can already connect to them, it can be both our internal experts, and external - vendors and equipment suppliers. The process looks like this: an employee at the plant performs a certain operation, and to make a decision, he needs information, or installation supervision or commissioning is carried out. An image of the employee’s glasses is transmitted to the monitors on the monitors, they can send him “hints” from their computers, just as in the text, simply sending tips to the points interface and graphics — the employee sends the photos from the glasses, the specialists quickly add an infographic on the screen and send info back for clarity and speed up communication.
And in order to make it even easier, it is possible to create an automatic access to the database so that the employee on the label on the device’s body will immediately receive information about it and the necessary actions.
Implementation and barriers
It's one thing to invent all of this and even implement it on hardware under normal conditions. Well, seriously, what a difficult thing, unfolded Wednesday, connected AR-glasses to the laptop, everything works and everything is cool.
And then you come to the factory.
By the way, many similar stories about “We have great industrial products” quickly end when the product gets into really industrial conditions. We have a lot of restrictions here. Wireless data network is not secure = no wireless network. There is a wired one, which is used to communicate with the Internet.
But (you already understood, yes?) The Internet is also unsafe = 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 push all this into the industry in the conditions of its existing restrictions. And the situation now is that such an approach has not yet been implemented within the industry.
We cannot just make a server with everything necessary for the platform to work, leave it at the factory and leave with the head held high - no one will connect to this server. It makes no sense to put a dedicated laptop near it either, it spoils the whole idea - we are doing all this in order to be able to connect with each other both the site employee in Nizhnevartovsk and the person from the factory in Pyt-Yakh (and there we have a factory, Yes), and the German from the vendor. And so that they can together properly discuss the repair of a pump or compressor, each from its own workplace (or on two, when an employee is at the site). And no one will have to fly anywhere, coordinate business trips, get visas, spend time and money.
I connected - I saw everything - I decided everything, or I suggested a solution and went / flew to help.
Other specifics that expose additional frameworks are our work with gas. And it is always a question of explosion protection and the requirements of specific premises. When creating a device, you should always ask yourself the question - who will use it at all and in what conditions? Someone works for us in the repair shop, where he carries out maintenance and repair, someone directly in production, someone in the server room, someone in substations.
Ideally, for each of the tasks and each use scenario, you need to make your device.
With the presence in the field of XR AR-points no problem. 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 20 minutes on a single charge, and in the process they work their face well. It is, of course, good when there is -40 on the site in Tobolsk, and you have something warm on your face. But still not the same.
One Japanese company came closer, it already had industrial designs for implementation at power facilities in the same 2014. In principle, the very idea of ​​AR-equipment on the market for a long time and by and large does not change much. For example, helmets for pilots - now everything is almost the same, just the systems have become smaller, there is enough power supply for a longer time, and the resolution of microdisplays and video cameras has improved significantly.
Here we must also take into account that such devices make monocular and binocular. And it makes sense. If in your work you need to read some information, view documents and the like, then you need a binocular device to form a picture 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, the possibilities of a monocular device will suffice.
In monoculars, there is even a sample with the presence of explosion protection, RealWear HMT-1z1, produced at the German plant of iSafe, but this is generally the only sample of serial products. Solid monocular device with explosion protection and a small monocular screen. But sometimes binoculars are needed. Say, the energy that is involved in the operational switching, you need a bigger screen to see the entire switching scheme in its entirety. The standard characteristics of the video camera in terms of the very quality of shooting and its convenience are also important here - so that nothing obstructs the viewing angle, so that there is a normal autofocus (to twist something small in gloves or to examine small chips on the details in a weak minus, catching the focus, this is so enjoy yourself).
But for repair shop employees everything is a bit simpler, there are other requirements for explosion safety, which allows you to choose devices from a wider model range. Here, the main thing is simply the quality - so that the device works, does not slow down, it was done soundly in the industrial design, so that it would 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 about which, not to push the solution into the industrial world is infrastructure. There is such a thing as a digital ready infrastructure. On the one hand, this is the same marketing hyip as the Windows 7 ready mouse for a computer. On the other hand, there is a rather important meaning. You will not use a mobile phone in the absence of a base station in range? Well, OK, you can use, read a book, see photos and stuff, but now there is no call.
All digital products fall on infrastructure. No it - no working digital product. And if very often digitalization is understood as simply transferring everything from paper to number, for example, a person’s paper pass was in a company - they made digital, and so on, then we have all this business starting from tasks, from what exactly we should do.
Suppose there is a simple wish - the infrastructure for communication. A plant area of ​​about 600 football fields. Is infrastructure worth doing here? If so, on which areas, squares? The plots are all different, each one needs to write TZ. Well and most importantly - but the people who work here, do you need this infrastructure?
Digital products in production is always a phased work, and the thing is that you do not understand how and what to do with the infrastructure until you drag the product itself. You brought a product, but there is no infrastructure. I unfolded wireless networks from available operators on crutches, I realized that it works, but I want stability - and roll back, as in the good old Soviet systems approach in design. And you begin to build the infrastructure that was not here and precisely in the form in which the users need.
Somewhere it is enough to put a couple of access points, somewhere there is an installation with a bunch of stairs and transitions high from a 20-storey house, and then at least hang on with the points and transmitters, but you will not receive such a network quality as indoors, so it makes sense to light up install and use portable access points such as those used by miners (explosion-proof!). Each object has its own specifics that require its solution.
People
Having created the infrastructure, dragging the necessary devices into the industry and adjusting everything from a technical point of view, remember - there are still people with whom you have to go through three stages to start using the product.
- Introduce in detail, show your own example.
- Teach to use it yourself, test after that, how much everyone understood.
- To ensure survival of the product.
In fact, you give people something that they haven't used before. Now, if you transplanted relatives from push-button cots to modern smartphones, there’s about the same story. Show the device, where is the video camera, and how to set up a microdisplay for yourself, and where to click for communication — and so on, so on.
And there is one ambush.
You come to the people and bring the product, talk about it. Employees can agree, not really argue, learn with interest and enthusiasm from you to use this new device. They can even quickly remember everything from the first time. They can brilliantly pass the knowledge test of the device and use it as confidently as you do.
And then it turns out that you did not specify in advance who exactly of their team would be wearing these glasses directly on the court. And it turns out that you need to re-train completely different people.
But you will have several employees who perfectly understood the product, which will not be used.
And we have a short video about how it works.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/448192/
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