Engineers at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) are providing British Royal Air Force (RAF) senior commanders with Microsoft mixed reality (MR) headsets.
The AMRC will supply RAF pilots with Microsoft Hololens 2 headsets to provide remote maintenance, repair, and operation (MRO) assistance with MR and augmented reality (AR) enhanced training, operations and onboarding.
Engineers will roll out the Hololens headsets at RAF Leeming base in North Yorkshire — a perfect location as the base is home to the RAF eXperimental (RAFX) Innovation Hub.
RAFX will provide the space for RAF and AMRC engineers to preform research and development (R&D) on cutting-edge technologies that will boost efficiency and improve safety.
MR integration was first introduced to RAF senior commanders during the Astra Technology Exposure Day, which earned positive feedback from commanding chiefs, according to Marcus Ramsden, Squadron Leader, Engineer Officer (AeroSystems) at RAF Leeming.
Since then, the Yorkshire base has started its MR digital transformation, granting senior commanders Hololens 2 headsets to facilitate paperless, digital workflows.
The digital transformation is going smoothly as the partnership provides MR solutions efficiently to selected team employees, Ramsden commented on the partnership, saying the AMRC had “the expertise, and a relationship with Microsoft was already there. It was all perfectly aligned.”
AMRC Factory 2050
The initiative comes as Sheffield university engineers work from their local emerging technologies research hub Factory 2050 to develop immersive MRO solutions.
Factory 2050 supplies students with MR headsets and industrial machines to encourage MRO software development and recently, brought a Hawk T MK1 aircraft to the university.
The AMRC did this with the intention of familiarising students with the aircraft and teach informed software development. On top of this, the students are using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides to digitise work manuals and computer-assisted designs.
