20/05/2019

Make UK members got the chance to experience  the Fourth Industrial Revolution first hand on 15 May at an interactive Virtual (VR) and Augmented (AR) Reality Manufacturing Connect event hosted at the Bristol VR Lab. Over 30 manufacturing businesses heard from a range of specialist speakers before getting hands on with VR and AR demos.

Our first speaker, Mark Sage from AREA, demonstrated the practical applications of Augmented Reality technology, including the ability for experts to remotely advise or check work as its happening and the removal of the need to refer to manuals when doing complex work, keeping the technician focused on the task at hand and increasing efficiency. Mark Miles from Render Media demonstrated several applications for VR including staff training and companies who have been able to demonstrate and test their products safely and remotely, reducing travel time and transportation costs. Attendees also heard from Sash Kularatna from the National Composite Centre who explained how VR and AR is being used to increase the accuracy and understanding of composite moulding, and Maz Shar from Dyson who spoke about Dyson’s use of VR in product development.

Attendees then got the chance to try three demonstrations, Rolls Royce’s AR equipment inspection tool, Dyson’s VR product texting environment and a range of simulations from Render Media, including a trip into space. People left this Make UK event with an increased understanding of the potential of AR and VR technology and some case studies of how manufacturing businesses have used the technology to increase productivity, efficiency and sales.