Remote Assistance using Virtual and Augmented Reality

Organizations of different industrial verticals are utilizing augmented reality (AR) technology to streamline their operations and change the face of remote assistance forever- taking it to the next level. A robust AR-based remote assistance solution can help your company reduce downtime, onboarding time, and equipment failures while also improving staff efficiency and productivity.

While AR is being embraced more than ever before to bridge the gap between theory and practice, its enormous benefits aid the future of your financial savings. According to Statista, the commercial use cases for Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR-VR) that are expected to receive the largest investment in 2024 are training and industrial maintenance with 4.1 billion U.S. dollars estimated to be invested in both fields.

What is AR-VR remote assistance?

AR-powered remote assistance is an advanced technology that combines augmented reality with live video streaming to spot faults in any equipment, from plant machinery to servers by simply accessing a user’s smartphone camera at the required location. It also enables the technicians to quickly bring subject matter experts virtually to a customer site to help them address complex service issues. AR-VR remote education and training programs bridge the gap between academia and practical skills.

Let us discuss the 6 great use cases to gain more insight into the advantages of AR assistance.

1. Technical Support for Maintenance and Repair Services

If the company lacks skills to repair machine breakdowns or failures, it can badly hit productivity and lead to financial losses. To speed up the repair process, an industry specialist can be hired, and their services can be used without being physically present using AR technology.

Even an employee with basic skills can use digital manuals to look up information, at the same time a specialist in a different location can assist him step by step. A professional AR-VR development company can provide remote assistance software to help experts to fix an issue remotely and have a comprehensive view of their client’s situation. Incidents such as a misconfigured server, a damaged equipment part, or a tricky hardware problem no longer require an industry specialist to travel.

For instance, Scope AR’s WorkLink Assist provides remote assistance to businesses and users starting with text-based work instructions and moving on to an expert AR consultation in the same session. Due to the increasing complexity of the manufacturing industry, the WorkLink platform seeks to reduce time-to-repair costs and technician headaches by connecting experts with businesses to maximize productivity. Makino, a machine tool manufacturer, reported an overall 25% reduction in resolution time, a 50% reduction in unplanned downtime, and projected overall service expense savings of $2.4 million with the help of this solution.

2. Collaboration with the Workforce

The key feature of AR remote assistance is the ability to see the issue, collaborate, and get things done faster. Teaching course after course to the same employees is not an efficient way of working. Instead learning to collaborate with other technical experts to work together on

projects using their unique skills improves the team’s productivity. With AR/VR technology the threshold for collaboration is greatly reduced, as several services and solutions have no geographical constraints. Just rely on AR remote expertise; an expert can assist you smoothly and efficiently without any friction.

3. Unique Customer Support Services

Today’s tech-savvy customers expect immediate, efficient, and hassle-free remote assistance combined with a rich digital and visual experience, which is what AR/VR technology is all about. If a client needs assistance, they can use AR headsets, like the Real wear HMT-1, and place a customer service employee right there in front of them without being present physically.

Customer service agents can visually guide consumers in solving their technical problems, providing real-time assistance and solutions. This increases call center efficiency, improves customer satisfaction, reduces labor intensity, and empowers customer care agents to function as virtual technicians, preventing unnecessary travel expenses.

4. Ensures Top-Notch Quality Control

Industrial and engineering industries depend on high–quality inspections and quality checks to ensure that their machinery and facilities adhere to industry requirements. This helps to improve efficiency, minimize risk, optimize yield, and ensure protection. Remote expertise is the best option to analyze the situation to improve the quality of the process and the output instead of random QA visits.

Instead of welcoming a QA personnel through your door, they’re going to appear on your computer/smartphone screen. Instead of driving them around the lab or record storage room, you will lead them through electronic files and pass digital folders to them. Remote Inspections will make it easier for specialists to view and access data in real time. Using encrypted, cloud-based communication technologies on vendor sites enables authentication and high–quality video, audio, annotation, language translation, recording, and documentation

5. Lowers the Expenses of Equipment Training and Support

AR remote training can provide interactive guidance to field staff when handling heavynmachines with low dangers. It allows companies to upskill their employees quickly, decreasing their recruiting budgets and the learning curve. Since remote assistance enables supervisors and staff to blend their surroundings, training can take place from anywhere and guarantees industry specialists & expertise to instruct new technicians on essential skills.

6. Bridges the Gap between Theory and Practice in Education

Augmented reality remote expertise is a new and effective method of teaching new skills, and problem-solving capabilities and doing practical experiments without geographical hindrance. A practical application is in the medical field where a medical professional can communicate with the patient while wearing an augmented reality device.

The communication with the patient remains personal, while a remote coach can provide the professional with added information and expertise. Real-time interaction and knowledge transfer are possible using AR-based remote assistance apps. Reputed AR-VR app development companies create robust solutions with features like a knowledge base or database that stores data of every process in dedicated servers and users can get access to that data anytime.

Concluding Lines

AR-powered remote assistance apps can provide you with fast and accurate resolutions of issues in a cost-effective way. You can optimize business workflows and ensure better results with higher productivity for your company. Travancore Analytics is an experienced AR-VR app development company with a wide range of AR-VR development services, a team of highly qualified developers, and a strong portfolio to back up industrial expertise.