The aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market sector is currently valued at $125 Billion but is facing many challenges in 2023, such as the disruption to the global supply chain, economic instability and inflation. So how can remote visual assistance help MRO providers mitigate these issues?
What is Remote Visual Assistance?
Remote visual assistance (RVA) connects a host and remote party with video using their respective device browsers. It transforms a basic video call with overlaid communications tools such as annotations, a pointer, OCR, object recognition, torch toggle & zoom control. Organisations use RVA to quickly resolve complicated or urgent issues, perform inspections and complete surveys without having to attend the scene in person. This is especially relevant when the site is overseas. RVA saves time and cost and is less intrusive for the remote party.
Technology requirements
RVA works using standard computers and smartphones. The remote party can also use smart glasses, which project the host's visual aids onto their glasses' lenses. Smart phone and tablet devices only need a web browser installed and an internet connection. Typically the remote party connects using their 4G service and the host at the other end uses their home or office broadband connection. Video sessions over 4G do not require a CAA license for use inside an airport and hence RVA is fine to use. RVA sessions that use WebRTC have encryption in transit (TLS 1.3) and may offer encryption at rest to protect media streams and saved data.
Scheduled vs unscheduled jobs
RVA can be categorised into app-free sessions and those requiring an application to be installed onto a smartphone or tablet. App free sessions work well when the host and remote party are from different organisations and the session may be a one- off or rare event. This would be classed as an unscheduled MRO task. There may be security or policy reasons preventing the installation of IOS and Android smart phone applications or the session may be very urgent so these types of situations favour app-free sessions which are quick to set up and non-intrusive.
There are several situations where an app is required such as AR-assisted maintenance tasks and those requiring smart glasses. These are generally scheduled maintenance tasks which typically happen between people that share a common employer or contract, they may work in the same maintenance team.
Fast SME response, globally
For urgent problems when a subject matter expert (SME) is required, such as a downed or grounded aircraft, RVA can speed up the resolution time by giving the SME the option to work on the issue remotely with a remote on-site engineer at the remote end. If the SME or engineer has to attend an overseas site, a pre-departure RVA session can help them ensure they bring the correct equipment to avoid a costly wasted trip. It may make better commercial sense to have SMEs back at base helping lesser-skilled engineers remotely in certain circumstances. Fuel system specialist Afast Aero Ltd performs remote visual inspections around the world and Director Jeff Gordon is an advocate of the technology: “Remote Inspections allow me to see the bigger picture at the location; it’s great to know exactly what issue we’ll be working with before we arrive at the aircraft” . With the reduction in engineer travel time and the ability to complete the consultation process remotely, aircraft downtime could be reduced by 30% - 50%, depending on the nature of the problem.
Reducing errors and create efficiency with AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a big part in remote visual assistance, it is used in optical character recognition, live object recognition and anomaly detection. All of these features are useful in the MRO world where accuracy and speed are paramount. In 2018 a BA Boeing 787 suffered a nose landing gear collapse because a locking pin was inserted into the incorrect pin bore which was adjacent to the correct location (see image below). This type of error would be picked up quite easily with AI anomaly detection which could compare a live video feed of the layout with a dataset of correct/incorrect configurations. The same landing gear collapse happened again recently on a different Boeing 787, also operated by BA. Whilst it wouldn't be cost effective to have a supervisor check every landing gear maintenance task in person, could a ten minute RVA session be justified?
RVA costs
App-free RVA services start at around £45 per person per month and they don't necessarily need any more spending on them, if smartphones and tablets are already owned and in use. The costs can quickly increase however if smart glasses or a mixed reality headset is required, these devices start at £800 and rise beyond £2000 and require a sophisticated application to power them.
Summary
RVA services deliver very fast return on investment rates for MRO companies, especially if they operate globally. By using standard browsers like Chrome, Safari and Firefox a session can be set up in seconds to any smart phone or tablet, in the world. They require very little training and can be implemented without troubling the IT Department. RVA is well suited to the Aerospace MRO sector because of the complexity of the engineering, the huge affect on revenue for grounded aircraft and the global nature of the sector.
If you would like to know more about Hostcomm's RVA service which is available as app-free and app-required please contact [email protected].
