Customer
The customer is a leading European provider of software field service solutions for companies involved in telecommunication, oil and gas, construction, facility management, and utility services.
Challenge
The customer is a leading European provider of real-time solutions for field service based on an in-house developed wireless software platform. The product range includes mobile, office, and online server solutions to cover any client’s requirements. The powerful set of standardized field service solutions for any Android or Windows Mobile PDA allows technicians to gain remote access to critical information related to a work order and perform all necessary tasks on site.
The development of new technologies, the growing complexity of modern equipment, and the challenge of controlling and maintaining such equipment properly motivated the customer to significantly upgrade its mobile product line. Primary importance was given to the implementation of new visualization means that would enhance the ability of the client’s specialists to control and maintain equipment in the field.
Solution
Having investigated the current tendencies and analyzed the customer’s requirements carefully, the Applied Systems Mobile Development Department decided to use the Metaio SDK as a platform independent augmented reality toolset with powerful tracking and rendering facilities for 2D images, 3D objects, and environments.
The developed solution extends the existing customer’s product with new functionality. In particular, the augmented reality
application allows the customer to:
• Get a 360° view of equipment with an augmented reality overlay;
• Identify every equipment component, both visible and hidden, its state and warnings;
• Detect defective components and inconsistencies in equipment;
• Make pictures/videos with notes, collect logs, generate reports, and upload them all to a cloud storage;
• Report defective components to the maintenance department share the materials uploaded to the cloud storage with maintenance specialists;
• Connect to a remote maintenance specialist to get step-by-step instructions live;
• Access the online catalogue to order the necessary spare parts.
Results
The new augmented reality overlay provides a complete picture of equipment components and their current state. With the ability to collect all
necessary data and share them with an online maintenance specialist it has become possible to troubleshoot and eliminate almost any problems right on site. The online catalogue of spare parts helps reduce idle time significantly. The intuitive user interface of the developed augmented reality solution ensures the shortest possible learning curve for new employees.
