A mobile maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) prototype has been designed by the scientists of IBM to help manufacturers and companies to supply and maintain high-value machinery in sectors such as aerospace, oil & gas and shipping.
Richard Lanyon-Hogg, IBM Technical Director for the industrial sector, said, "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. 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."
Dr Rab Scott, Head of the Virtual Reality and Modelling Group AMRC, said, "IBM's MRO prototype is an exciting addition to the innovative toolset used by the AMRC’s researchers and engineers. We hope to demonstrate its usefulness and versatility in a number of situations within the manufacturing arena."
This MRO system, using a combination of augmented reality and robotics, will help field engineers to accurately locate equipment, receive real-time visual support from supervising experts and will provide them with critical information. It allows a supervisor to monitor an engineer's progress towards the maintenance site, using GPS. Once on site, an engineer can use a smartphone and QR codes to locate and identify an asset and receive maintenance instructions.
The new system provides the supervisor with complete visual independence and a more stable video image.
A fully working IBM MRO system has been installed at the AMRC's Diamond Jubilee Knowledge Transfer Centre.
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