Immersive engineering: The role of extended reality within industrial machinery

At the heart of manufacturing sits industrial machinery: Industrial machines are responsible for creating and packaging the everyday items we use in our lives – from the coffee in your cup, to the car that you drive, machines are creating what we need, when we need it.  

To develop complex, versatile machines, designers have long relied on traditional engineering solutions. Engineers use Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to design their machines, and simulation software to test how machines will operate under real-world conditions. And all of these tools are accessed through a 3D representation on a flat, 2D computer monitor.

But now, a new approach has emerged.  

Immersive engineering stands at the forefront of a radical change in the way designers interact with the virtual world, offering a new way to innovate with extended reality (XR) features.

Defining immersive engineering

In a nutshell, immersive engineering provides users with a virtual setting to interact with the world, typically through a headset.

This headset comes equipped with extended reality capabilities, the umbrella term for when a user can use either virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), or mixed reality (MR) features.

In general terms, these differences look like:  

• Virtual Reality (VR): An immersive, fully digital environment that replaces the user’s physical surroundings.
• Augmented Reality (AR): A technology that overlays digital information and content onto the user’s view of the physical world.
• Mixed Reality (MR): A hybrid environment that seamlessly blends physical and digital elements, allowing for interaction between the two.

Armed with all this functionality, users can implement immersive engineering to manipulate in an infinite amount of space.

For example, a user could put on a headset and use its AR capabilities to run through a maintenance procedure on a machine, while a different user could put on the same headset and use its VR capabilities to visualize a machine’s design alongside its design requirements. 

Immersive engineering and its extended reality features truly shine when overcoming four main pain points:  

• Agile development
• Errors
• Team efficiency
• Prototyping

Overcoming machine design pain points

Quality and performance are top priorities for any machine builder, according to a report by ABi research. But reconciling these two facets isn’t easy, especially if machine builders have tools that silo data or cannot integrate.

Immersive engineering solves this problem, and makes agile development possible, as users can work from a single source of truth to create a machine.

Specifically, immersive engineering leverages the digital twin, or a 3D model of a machine. The digital twin is based on the machine’s CAD design and simulation model, and it can be reviewed and tweaked at any time within the immersive engineering’s XR functionality.  

Virtual changes made within the XR headset automatically populate downstream (meaning, they will appear in CAD and simulation software present on computers), driving down potential mistranslations or errors.  

Within the immersive engineering environment, disciplines like design and simulation can work in tandem, rather than synchronously – promoting greater team efficiency, as machines are developed faster without a sacrifice in quality or performance.  

Virtual prototyping within the XR headset further optimizes machine development, as machines can be virtually commissioned and validated, reducing costs that often result from physical commissioning. Additionally, virtual prototyping can reduce the time associated with physical prototyping, as it can catch more errors up front, thereby streamlining the commissioning process down the line.

Evolution, not revolution

Immersive engineering lessens the burden on machine builders by providing several advanced technological capabilities. And what’s more, these capabilities act as an evolution on the machine building process, rather than an outright, disruptive revolution.  

For a seamless transition, machine builders should consider a phased approach, where XR is used alongside a traditional desktop environment for a time. XR can be implemented in small intervals for tasks as needed, rather than a long-form, full day of wearing a headset.

Furthermore, successful deployment of XR starts with a small group of users at a machine building company, who can pilot and demo the features, providing feedback to the larger company as immersive engineering progresses. 

With immersive engineering, the possibilities are endless.

To discover the full benefits of immersive engineering within the industrial machinery landscape, check out this industry report.