To allow for easy maintenance and repair of Navy aircraft and systems, engineers at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division are working on an augmented reality headset application to connect engineers with maintainers across the globe.
The technology was bestowed upon the 2020 Department of Defense Maintenance Innovation Challenge Award and will have also have applications beyond the military.
“I am incredibly proud of the innovation and mission focus of our engineers in bringing this ARRMSS technology to life,” exclaimed NAWCAD Commander, Rear Adm. John Lemmon.
“This level of agility and service to the Fleet will ensure our Navy maintains the readiness and lethality needed by our fighting forces,” he added.
Speculated to be titled the Augmented Reality Remote Maintenance Support Service (ARRMSS), the platform will enable seamless audio and visual connectivity through an AR headset. Fleet maintainers will be able to remotely troubleshoot maintenance and repair issues in real-time along with the engineers. It will also enable them to superimpose holograms on the equipment apart from sharing photos and other forms of content that can help the process.
Live testing for the system was undertaken on the East Coast and it is now ready for the next steps.
“We’re working to an aggressive developmental schedule – ARRMSS went from proof of concept to working prototype in less than two years, and we’re ready to start beta-testing the product worldwide,” said Aristides Staikos, NAWCAD Lakehurst’s AR Research and Development Engineering lead. “Our ultimate goal is a reduction in aircraft downtime and faster assistance to those that need it.”
Due to the requisite compatibility with low-bandwidth networks, the system will come as a kit comprising of the headset, a tablet, and a remote network wireless access point which is unlike anything commercially available in the market as of now.
“We purposely designed the tech with the Navy in mind to conserve bandwidth, especially at sea and in other remote environments,” added Staikos.
Follow us on LinkedIn
Read other Articles
