The construction of the first 10 thousand aircraft from Airbus took more than 40 years. And over the next two decades, the aerospace giant is planning to build another 20,000 - this is a very difficult task, which requires the best innovations.

The key to achieving this ambitious goal will be Microsoft’s “holographic” technology, called the “mixed reality,” because it unites the real world with the virtual, digital world.

“Our task in the coming years is to produce more aircraft and make it faster. Therefore, we need our employees to be better equipped and work much more efficiently. We have to raise the bar, ”says Jean-Bryce Dumont, executive vice president of engineering at Airbus, which manufactures aircraft, helicopters, satellites and launch vehicles.

“To cope with this task, we intend to actively use mixed reality, which is why we are working with Microsoft,” explains Dumont.

Using Microsoft's mixed reality, Airbus production workers can access information and instructions, even when their hands are busy. This technology also facilitates learning, eliminating the need to use expensive equipment and take students to where this equipment is located. And this is just the beginning: Airbus experts have found more than 300 applications of mixed reality.

Airbus has been exploring mixed reality for several years, and four years ago began to develop solutions of mixed reality with Microsoft. Now this work will advance significantly thanks to the enhanced capabilities of Microsoft HoloLens 2 , the latest generation of headsets, as well as the growing family of applications and mixed reality services from Microsoft and industry partners.

What is mixed reality?

Mixed reality displays digital information beyond the boundaries of two-dimensional screens into three-dimensional space visible to man, forming “holograms” - three-dimensional images accompanied by sound.

Microsoft HoloLens headsets are the culmination of advances in artificial intelligence, in hardware design, and in mixed reality. These headsets give people the opportunity to interact with “holograms” in real space, allowing you to view three-dimensional images and manipulate them in the air or in the context of real-life material objects.

The recent release of the HoloLens 2 model has brought mixed reality a step further, giving users the ability to manipulate “holograms” just like they do with real physical objects. Among other things, the new headset tracks eye movements to determine where the user is looking, and generate relevant digital information for it, and also provides automatic scrolling as it reads. Users can log in using the iris recognition function, which makes information sharing between several people easy and secure.

Hololens 2 helps Airbus engineers 80% speed up product availability testing.
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Practical application of mixed reality

Airbus has achieved impressive results during the testing and implementation of Microsoft's mixed reality technologies in the areas of education, design and manufacturing.

“Mixed reality can improve quality, reliability and security,” says Dumont. “The number of human errors is significantly reduced, and in the aerospace industry, quality improvement is an increase in reliability and, of course, safety.”

Mixed reality allows you to train aerospace technology specialists in a virtual environment, eliminating the need to use real planes and parts for this. This three-dimensional environment offers opportunities that are not available with traditional training: for example, visualization of parts in three dimensions at any angle.

HoloLens helps Airbus designers to virtually test their designs to see if they are ready for production. Mixed reality greatly accelerates this process, reducing time by 80%.

In addition, mixed reality technology will allow workers on the production line to access important information while keeping their hands free. Digital information, such as instructions or charts, can be displayed "in the air" over real equipment, helping to perform complex tasks and not distracting from work. Such mixed reality solutions have already allowed Airbus to cut production time by a third, while improving quality.

Barbara Bergmayer, head of operations at Airbus Defense and Space, says that mixed reality empowers workers by allowing them to perform their tasks very efficiently and ergonomically, and this directly affects productivity.

“When workers get the right information at the right time, without holding their hands, not only the quality of work, but also safety increases. This is exactly what we need. We cannot think about quality without considering the safety of our employees, ”she says.

Mixed reality technology will allow Airbus production workers to see information and instructions, even when their hands are busy.

Teamwork for mixed reality development

Airbus not only creates solutions for employees, but also offers turnkey solutions for customers who can also use Airbus experience in creating their own solutions for mixed reality. Airbus began selling its HoloLens 2 headset solutions with Microsoft at the Paris Air Show .

“At the core of HoloLens 2 is the idea that this headset is designed for the consumer and with the participation of the consumer,” says Alex Kipman, a technical employee of the Microsoft Cloud and AI group. “Airbus is our long-standing strategic partner with whom we create the future of mixed reality solutions for the industrial environment, and we have learned a lot from them. We are pleased to continue our partnership at the dawn of a new era of computing technology - the era of mixed reality and artificial intelligence. ”

The first new solution created as part of this partnership was the mixed reality training program, first presented jointly with Japan Airlines (JAL). This program allows maintenance operators and cabin crew to study in a three-dimensional "holographic" environment, and to receive instructions while working, without being distracted or holding hands.

In addition, Airbus will launch a collaborative mapping solution that allows aerospace and defense industry professionals to virtually communicate, quickly exchange space data and interact with complex virtual environments during flight planning and preparation.

Airbus also satisfies the needs of other customers by providing solutions for service, training and remote collaboration in a mixed reality.

In the next 20 years, Airbus plans to build 20,000 aircraft.

Real life leadership

Airbus's collaboration with Microsoft in the realm of mixed reality not only helps the company solve current problems. Such technological innovations are necessary for Airbus to achieve a more ambitious goal - to become the world leader in digital services for the aerospace industry.

“We are very optimistic about the future of cooperation with Microsoft, based on what we have done over the past four years,” says Dumont. - For us, this is a way to go through our own digital transformation. There are many different aspects, but mixed reality and HoloLens 2 will become one of the main Airbus tools in the future. ”