Through new features such as augmented reality, expanded validation tools, model-based definition and 2D Nesting, Solid Edge 2020 provides next generation technologies to enhance collaboration and fully digitalize the design-to-manufacturing process.

“Sharing designs in AR/VR with Solid Edge 2020 could change how we do almost everything. It’s an absolute game changer and will help us design better, while communicating more effectively and efficiently with our customers and engineers,” said Stefan Islinger, Information Management, IM-CAD Support for Krones AG.

Solid Edge 2020 delivers new augmented reality capabilities that enable users to visualize design intent in new ways, enabling enhanced collaboration internally, as well as with suppliers and customers during the design process. New and powerful validation tools have been integrated for conducting motion and vibration simulation, which can help customers reduce costly prototypes.

“The latest enhancements to the Solid Edge portfolio can help small to medium-sized manufacturers digitalize their entire product development process from end-to end,” said John Miller, Sr. Vice President, Mainstream Engineering at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “We continue to work on providing an advanced portfolio of affordable and easy-to-use tools to help our customers with their digital transformation, so they can reduce costs and accelerate product delivery.”

Further reading:

The full press release

Information about Solid Edge

Next Reality’s take on the news

The firm’s background is discussed including its industrial IoT platform. CEO Jim Heppelmann said that one factor in its success was to PTC’s long-standing focus in shrinking the gap between the digital and physical worlds. Its logo, representing a digital and physical hand coming together, hints at this intersection, which serves as a foundation for its IoT focus.

“PTC started with the digital definition of things through CAD and PLM tools,” reads part of a corporate presentation on the company. It continues: “This digital definition is converted into the physical things around us. Today, those physical things generate digital information that can be captured and analyzed by the IoT.”

The company also has a unique vantage point when it comes to augmented reality, Heppelmann said. “If you really want to do AR, you need to know 3D. That’s our heritage. And you need IoT because you need data about the physical world,” he explained. “And then you need to understand the shape of the physical world.”

Other than ThingWorx, part of the company’s IoT offerings is KEPServerEX, a connectivity platform used in more than 75,000 sites. The software offers support for an array of industrial devices while also offering the ability to convert legacy insecure communication protocols with secure protocols as well as support for SSL and TLS.

In terms of augmented reality, the company recently bolstered its offerings with the Vuforia Expert Capture AR technology. Designed to help industrial companies quickly create training guides and SOP manuals, the Expert Capture system enables a skilled worker to repair or assemble a piece of machinery while documenting every step in the process so others can follow in that expert’s footsteps.

The problem Expert Capture aims to solve is capturing knowledge from industrial veterans. Many industrial sectors are wrestling with an aging workforce. In the United States, the average age of a worker in manufacturing was 44 in 2018. “There’s lots of people retiring,” said Mike Campbell, executive vice president, augmented reality products at PTC. “They’re taking all their tribal knowledge out of the workforce with them. Some of our customers are really in a crisis mode where they’re trying to figure out how do we maintain that knowledge.”

The problem drove PTC to develop the Expert Capture system, which works in three phases. “The first phase is about capturing the expertise. So you basically put a set of digital eyewear on your experts, and then they do their job,” Campbell said. The experts can carry out a task hands-free and common on critical steps. “They’re recording video and taking pictures along the way,” Campbell said. “The second phase is enhancing that expertise.” in this step, after performing a series of physical steps and capturing it via digital eyewear, the worker can fine-tune the structure of the digital materials the Expert Capture system creates. The third step is sharing the expertise of experienced workers with less-experienced employees. After publishing, the instructions are available on a variety of devices.

In terms of digital eyewear, the system supports Microsoft HoloLens as well as the forthcoming HoloLens 2. It also supports the RealWear HMT-1 head-mounted Android computer that can be attached to a hard hat.

Users viewing instructions gathered by the system can use the aforementioned systems as well as access the information on smartphones and tablets. “Some of our customers were saying: ‘Boy, I’d like to just have a piece of documentation.’ So we output to that as well,” Campbell said. No matter what the option, the system can improve the accuracy and speed in which workers perform new or unfamiliar tasks.

One of PTC’s customers, Global Foundries, was able to reduce the time to document standard operating procedures by up to tenfold while curbing employee training time by half by using the Vuforia Expert Capture system in a trial.

The wide support is indicative of PTC’s ethos that prioritizes ecosystems over individual technologies. “There is a broad waterfront of AR capabilities that are required, and we are addressing that entire waterfront with many different options across all of those different vectors,” Campbell said. “That’s why I think people choose PTC because we’ve got all of those options available.”

“To increase profit margins, we need to ship more wafers at lower cost, so we are looked at every part of our process and developed an integrated AI and AR/VR strategy,” said D.P. Prakash, who leads implementation of the augmented/virtual reality project that he claims is a year ahead of his competition.

In early May, GlobalFoundries gave 10 workers AR glasses from Realwear to provide 2D displays of documentation inside the fab. The foundry has identified 30 use cases for the application developed by PTC using its Vuforia platform acquired from Qualcomm in 2015.

“Jobs that used to take two weeks or even two months could now take a couple of days,” said Prakash.

GlobalFoundries  identified four applications for AR, with training the next one slated for deployment, followed by operations. In a proof-of-concept pilot, the foundry determined that AR could slash training time by 30% to 50%.

“Ten headsets is a great start, and we will scale that it will be more than 50 for [accessing] documentation — ordering 200 headsets out of the gate is not a smart solution,” said Arpad Hevizi, chief information officer at GlobalFoundries.

“Once we have the training app, the project will scale to more than 100 headsets because our front-end technicians are under very high demand. The training process is measured in weeks, and they need to be in the clean room, so there is significant turnover that we can reduce.”

Use of headsets for system operators is still in a proof-of-concept stage. If all goes well, GlobalFoundries will deploy hundreds of headsets for them.

RealWear Inc, PTC and Qualcomm mentioned in the article are all AREA members.

Description of Bosch’s CAP

Using augmented reality, Bosch has developed new training methods that can, for example, be used to train workshop employees for complex systems. The training can be carried out on physical or virtual vehicles. Whether it be smartphone, tablet or data glasses, it is possible to use any mobile device and also combine it with others.

This is made possible by the Bosch Common Augmented Reality Platform (CAP): software that brings AR content and applications into the industrial sector. Fed with locally or centrally stored contents, the platform compiles the required data for each specific AR application. This allows different training scenarios to be implemented.

Jury statement on the award

Workshop staff are increasingly having to deal with complex vehicle technologies such as electric vehicles and assistance systems. This flood of knowledge can no longer be faithfully conveyed through conventional training techniques.

The Common Augmented Reality Platform was specially developed for training in the automotive segment and highlights complex correlations and functions in a simple, transparent way. A modern training tool that is neatly executed in didactic terms too, and which is likely to be a feature of any workshop in ten years’ time.

Information reproduced from source article about the winners.

The latest edition of PTC’s bi-annual report explores how augmented reality solutions are being leveraged to reduce tracking time and costs to bridge the worker skill gap.

PTC research finds industrial enterprises are the highest adopters of AR solutions and are seeing dramatic results in driving worker efficiency and quality, while lowering costs.

The report includes actionable insights on use cases and beneficiaries, as well as detailed real-world examples.

The report authors are: Mike Campbell, EVP, Augmented Reality Products Shawn Kelly, VP, Corporate Strategy Jonathan Lang, Lead Principal Business Analyst David Immerman, Business Analyst.

The full report can be downloaded here 

Those threats include concealed weapons, suspicious persons, and even active shooters. SWORD features a camera that allows it to make facial recognition scans, as well as a thermal imaging sensor that can detect explosives and concealed weapons. If a situation escalates, it also boasts the ability to triangulate the location of gunfire.

All of the information is displayed on the Vuzix smart glasses to create a highly mobile and adaptable perimeter solution.

“Vuzix Blade provides a see-through display that not only allows our customers to stay connected with the real world, but also be connected to the digital world to receive critical alerts related to safety threats from our SWORD solution,” said SWORD Founder and CEO Barry Oberholzer.

According to Oberholzer, SWORD has already received more than 88,000 pre-orders, with production expected to begin in earnest in Q3 2019. Vuzix previously integrated Sensory’s TrulyHandsFree voice recognition tech into its M300 smart glasses. More recently, it was one of several device manufacturers that lent support to Qualcomm’s new XR1 chip platform.

The integration will enable robot-assisted processes to achieve a level of complexity and scale that rivals traditional fixed automation, at a lower cost and with never-before-seen flexibility.

“We intend to change the narrative around how robots will impact the logistics industry,” says Seth Patin, CEO of LogistiVIEW. “It’s not about replacing humans.  Rather, robots represent an opportunity to completely rethink automation with a focus on cost-effective and flexible alternatives to expensive fixed assets.

With Fetch technology, LogistiVIEW is expanding its Flexible Automation Platform offerings to replace full conveyor systems with software-defined automation.  In the not-so-distant future, the only steel bolted to the floor will be structural and movement of robots, people, and products will be dynamically orchestrated by AI.  We’re excited to take this significant step forward in that journey with this partnership.”

The objective of the partnership is to allow warehouses to automate in a more flexible way, based on AI-enabled interactions between workers and the robotic solutions used in distribution centers.  For many years, expensive, fixed automation has been the only option for scaling product movement.  Now, LogistiVIEW is connecting workers with robotics through AI to enable enhanced coordination of people, process, and technology. As a result, warehouses will be able to move more product, with greater complexity, to achieved scaled flexible automation.

LogistiVIEW demonstrated its Connected Worker Platform technology at the 10^th annual AWE 2019 conference in Santa Clara, CA.

Read LogisitiVIEW’s AREA member profile here

They announced on Twitter “We are so excited and grateful to entire team, all of our fantastic customers and the many followers who voted for us. Thank you!!”

This was announced during Augmented World Expo held May 29-31 in Santa Clara, California.

Congratulations also go to AREA member RealWear Inc (above) who were voted “Best Headworn Device” for their HMT-1 helmet for use in industrial rugged environments.

Fantastic recognition for teams that work so hard in the enterprise AR industry.  Well done to all!

Read about our members on their profiles: Atheer and RealWear 

The two companies have made it possible for somebody to drive a real car while wearing an augmented reality headset, seamlessly adding virtual elements that seem real to not just the driver, but the car’s sensors too. Their latest invention is called the Varjo XR-1, and it’s pretty impressive.

“With this mixed-reality approach, we can start evaluating designs and technologies while they are literally still on the drawing board,” said Volvo CTO, Henrik Green. “Instead of the usual static way of evaluating new products and ideas, we can test concepts on the road immediately. This approach offers considerable potential cost savings by identifiying priorities and clearing bottlenecks much earlier in the design and development process.”

The XR-1 also boasts highly accurate eye-tracking technology, making it easy to assess how drivers use a new functionality and whether or not they are distracted by the new features.

“From the very beginning, our vision has been to create a product that can seamlessly merge the real and the virtual together,” said Niko Eiden, founder and CEO of Varjo. “The incredibly advanced ways in which Volvo Cars uses the XR-1 show that Varjo’s technology enables things that have been previously impossible. Together with Volvo we have started a new era in professional mixed reality.”

Volvo will demonstrate the Varjo XR-1 headset at the Augmented Reality World Expo in Santa Clara, California, while a patent has already been filed for the technology.

Field technicians using the WorkLink platform wear AR glasses that can broadcast what the worker is seeing to an expert, who can then speak audibly and draw over the workers’ vision.

This is a fundamental capability of augmented reality, which can use smart glasses or the camera on a mobile device, to add “holographic” objects to the world. Using AR, it is possible to project objects, lines, arrows and other drawings onto the real world that can attach to real world things. That makes it possible for remote experts to provide visual instruction and knowledge without needing to go out to the field themselves.

The upgrades to WorkLink add the ability capture and retain knowledge through recorded sessions that can be played back in the future. This can be useful for types of work that are rote and repetitive, thus meaning the recorded experience of one worker can be useful to another in the same situation and perhaps with the same equipment.

Scope AR has also announced a new enterprise customer, medical device manufacturer Becton, Dickinson and Co., as well as an expansion of its AR platform with aerospace and defense outfit Lockheed Martin Corp.

“With the latest WorkLink platform, we’ve added even more ways for workers to collaborate and quickly get the knowledge they need to successfully do their jobs,” said Scott Montgomerie, chief executive of Scope AR. “With the addition of session recording, businesses can now better capture and retain knowledge for future use and training purposes, while taking compliance, quality assurance and accuracy to the next level.”

The updated WorkLink platform brings a greater number of functions and is customizable to the needs of the business in question. It’s designed to be deployed across all major platforms, including the HoloLens and the RealWear’s HMT-1, as well as many mobile devices allowing enterprise interests to use whatever equipment is on hand.

The new Session Recording function can capture important information delivered during a live session between a technician and an expert. That allows it to be replayed later and shared so it can be examined for insights into training needs and the process can be improved.

The formerly standalone product Remote AR, now WorkLink Assist, continues to deliver the same remote expert assistance as described above. And WorkLink Create provides the tools to produce AR content seamlessly for step-by-step instructions.

Using the service, Lockheed Martin has been able to make increasingly good use of AR to help its workers get jobs done more efficiently. This has been especially helpful in the firm’s space aerospace engineering division.

“Creating AR work instructions with WorkLink has enabled our Space team to reach unprecedented levels of efficiency and accuracy, as well as reduced manufacturing training and activity ramp-up time by 85%,” said Shelley Peterson, lead of Lockheed Martin’s Emerging Technologies division. “Scope AR’s platform has proven to be so valuable that we have expanded our AR adoption into even more manufacturing applications within the Space division, as well as leveraging the technology in other areas of the business.”