A lorry manufacturing firm has built an AR solution to synchronise data between engineers and repair workers
Peterbilt Motors Company recently hit a major milestone in the deployment of its ARTech augmented reality (AR) solution aimed at transforming services for dealerships and service repair workers.
The new solution, which uses 3D AR visuals for “chassis-specific Peterbilt trucks”, will work jointly with PACCARSolutions Service Managment systems, allowing service technicians to rapidly access truck systems, technical documents, and diagrams on Apple iPads.
Peterbilt reported the benefits of using AR, stating the technology allowed the firm to “fill the void” typically found between engineers’ technical data and service technicians using the data for troubleshooting and repairs, both efficiently and quickly.
Working with numerous talented specialists in design, analysis, architecture, and software development, Peterbilt designed the solution and tested it at several of its national dealership sites.
Dealerships for the Denton, Texas-based company plan to reach 200 ARTech deployments by the end of March next year, according to the company.
Peyton Harrell, Director of Dealer Development for Peterbilt, explained how his company analysed “pain points” technicians had raised prior to building ARTech and “focused on key technologies” to combine key data from multiple databases in a single system.
He explained further, stating,
“The result is our ARTech tool, which transforms 2D technical information into a 3D image by placing full-scale objects on top of the real environment. This technology provides technicians a type of x-ray vision to help improve diagnostic and repair times”
According to Harrell, dealerships using ARTech at their service stations found a 15 to 20 percent boost to repair times.
Mike Lacey, Western Regional Produce Support Manager at Ohio Peterbilt, added the solution facilitated an ease of use for technicians due to its simplified, streamlined interface, stating,
“Instead of having to carry a laptop, an adapter and other tools to be able to pull information up on a laptop, now you’re carrying an iPad with all of the information in one convenient location. This has been a huge timesaver in pinpointing and troubleshooting codes and issues, speeding up the process and getting our customers’ trucks back on the road as quickly as possible”
Jason Skoog, Peterbilt General Manager and PACCAR Vice-President, added ARTech would empower equipment technicians by linking data “trapped on paper or on screens” with vehicles in service bays.
AR Guiding Essential Workers and Manufacturers
AR solutions have become a mainstay in the manufacturing and service sectors as new technologies provide critical data to technicians, engineers, and customer service personnel with real-time visuals.
Taqtile, a major AR firm producing mixed reality (MR) systems for deskless and frontline workers, expanded support for its Manifest platform amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The US firm now has access to top MR headsets from Magic Leap, RealWear, Microsoft’s HoloLens 2, as well as tablets, mobiles, and wearables, to supply real-time visualised data to vital frontline staff.
Tech giants such as Hewlett-Packard (HP) also launched its xRServices printing service solution for the HoloLens 2 to facilitate remote troubleshooting for clients with HP engineers, dramatically reducing printer downtimes.
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