Industry 4.0 and augmented reality: innovation taken to the field

Industry 4.0 is the typical umbrella concept that groups together the most innovative digital technologies applied to the production environment, from artificial intelligence and augmented reality to new asset management processes or the most modern 3D printing systems, the Internet of Things, or Big Data, to name the most well-known. The energy sector has historically been one of the most active in incorporating these disruptive, novel technologies, which not only improve production processes but transform them to multiply their final result, in the form of more efficient consumption of all a company’s energy vectors. Thus, artificial intelligence systems have been applied to detect, analyze, and correct anomalies in any energy installation, more quickly and efficiently; big data analytics systems have been implemented to obtain advanced conclusions from available information; and advanced augmented reality tools have been introduced to streamline support and maintenance tasks for physical assets. This time, we will focus on this last section, which allows adding virtual elements or additional information, in the form of graphics or images, to the real environment, displayed through glasses or any mobile device, to offer a rich layer of additional information. Unlike virtual reality, which completely immerses us in an imaginary world (in cinema, represented in the movie Avatar), augmented reality adds a layer of information to the real image we observe through those futuristic glasses (in the style of Minority Report), increasingly present in many professional and social fields, as well as cultural or leisure ones, such as a few years ago with the Pokemon Go game. Applied to the management of energy assets in the industrial sector, it allows interaction with real physical elements, which is very useful for facility maintenance or energy management of plants, warehouses, and all types of production facilities. With its help, it is possible to check the operation of physical systems and devices on-site and remotely offer a view enriched with a layer of appropriate data and information to facilitate their control and maintenance. Thanks to augmented reality, it is also possible to connect different devices, networks, and databases, to share information in real time and facilitate the work of technicians when maintaining and repairing any incident in the production facility. That is why augmented reality has so much potential in the energy field, as it allows linking real images with geolocation data or associated metadata (contract, asset history, instructions, and guides), all in real time. Additional information that completes the perception of the immediate environment, providing context and very useful data, at the right time and place. Cutting-edge technologies that EDF Fenice is applying to its daily dynamics to improve control and maintenance tasks for its clients’ facilities, reduce costs, avoid unnecessary technician travel, share valuable information among its professionals, and improve response capacity to any incident. Enormous benefits that translate into significant economic gains, improvements in efficiency and productivity for industrial companies, increasingly aware of the enormous value of technologies for the present and future of their activity.