APPLICATION OF ASSISTED REALITY AT MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES: E-REDES' PILOT PROJECT RESULTS

Abstract

Augmented (AR), Virtual (VR) and Assisted Reality are a hot topic among utilities as several of them already implemented successfully their first pilot projects with interesting results. Although mature, the technology is still relatively new and still needs some improvement as current limitations prevent large scale roll outs on the energy utility sector. But as any other technology AR and VR are going through an exponential growing phase with still an enormous potential yet to be explored. Focusing on evaluating the applicability of Assisted Reality technology on field maintenance activities, this paper shares not only the results and experience of the pilot project, but it also highlights the interesting challenges associated with the development and testing of this technology. From simple to complex tasks field workers started using head-mounted display devices to perform their daily activities and their performance was evaluated in comparison to the “normal scenario”. The use of these hands-free devices also enabled E-REDES to assess the degree of acceptance by the field workers and evaluate the equipment performance on real work environment conditions.