About the Event
Conexus Indiana’s Emerging Technology Showcase Series featured “Bring immersive, interactive 3D visualization to your business” in an interactive webinar on Thursday, April 8, 2021.
Unity Technologies is a leader in democratization of AR, VR, and XR with their suite of tools being integrated as the fundamental engine behind many 3D visualization solutions. We heard from a Unity senior technical specialist for automotive, transport and manufacturing about the potential for 3D visualization in manufacturing and logistics.
Watch / Re-watch the Event
Click here to see the entire webinar, featuring a presentation from Unity Technologies.
View the Presentation Materials here.
Summary of Key Themes
During the presentation, Unity Technologies covered several use cases for 3D visualization in manufacturing and logistics, from real-time simulation and digital twin for collaborative design and prototyping, to augmented and extended reality solutions for projects like building immersive training programs and AR-assisted maintenance and inspection. We’ve highlighted some of our favorite use cases below.
- Use 3D visualization for design and prototyping: 3D visualization offers a collaborative method to bring the designers and engineering closer together, enabling global distribution and collaboration for remote teams or disconnected departments.
- Create and test digital twins of products, machines, or systems: By pairing the virtual and physical world, organizations can develop and test an innovative technology adoption project or reconstruct a manufacturing process to make it more efficient.
- Model heavy machines, robots, and other complex systems found in manufacturing and logistics: Reduce the overall project cost by shortening the design-test-deploy cycle needed for heavy machinery and complex manufacturing systems. By leveraging CAD data, material flow simulations, and other terrain data points, an organization can visualize the physics and dynamics of a heavy machinery situation, which may otherwise be impossible to produce or replicate in a real-world scenario.
- Build immersive and personalized employee training programs: While there are many reasons to include AR / VR / and XR training for employees, at the top of the list must be upskilling workers faster, reducing training costs, providing training in a safe environment, and improving information retention. Due to the nature of manufacturing and logistics, where first-hand, in-person learning is almost always required, VR training programs can yield better results for employers as well as improve the training experience for employees.
- Conduct real-time quality inspections: Manufacturing and logistics companies have been rapidly adopting technologies like machine vision for rapid quality inspections. But where use cases are not appropriate for machine vision, for example in large or complex products, 3D visualization can be used to support human inspection. A use case Jerome Maurey-Delaunay walked us through is at Toyota, where Unity is leveraged to reduce human error during inspections. In this automotive-specific use case, “Toyota’s team can easily spot with mixed reality [and machine learning] mistakes that the human eye would miss … Simple errors such as a loose coolant cap carry consequences if not detected and corrected immediately.” Read more here.
- How to know if your organization is ready to adopt AR / VR: Chrissy Edgington, Unity’s Senior Industrial Strategist, put a fine point on this matter. Chrissy often works with first-time Unity adopters that are small-to-medium companies in manufacturing and logistics. Some have dedicated only 1-2 employees to build, develop, and implement a custom solution with Unity’s platform, and many have been able to build beneficial solutions rapidly. 3D visualization for your business might be closer and more accessible than you think.
About Conexus Indiana’s Emerging Tech Showcase Series
Conexus Indiana’s Emerging Technology Showcase is a series highlighting specific Smart Manufacturing solutions or programs that offer a value proposition to advanced manufacturing and logistics (AML) industries.
Conexus Indiana qualifies featured technologies or programs to be commercially launched while still early-stage. The intent is to give Indiana-based AML companies exposure and direct access to credible resources that offer a competitive advantage prior to its widespread adoption.
Thank You, Presenters!
- Chrissy Edgington(chrissy.edgington@unity3d.com), Senior Industrial Strategist, Unity Technologies – Indiana, USA
- Jerome Maurey-Delaunay(jerome@unity3d.com), Senior Technical Specialist for Automotive, Transport and Manufacturing, Unity Technologies – London, England