Yokogawa Introduces AR-based SensPlus™ Buddy Communication Support Service

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it will be rolling out the SensPlus™ Buddy communication support service on November 10. With this solution, personnel in the field will enjoy access to support information from their mobile devices.

SensPlus Buddy can be accessed using a standard web browser on any general-purpose mobile device or personal computer, and does not require the installation of software. With this web-based service, users can easily make video calls and make use of augmented reality (AR) technology to transmit easy-to-visualize image and text data. SensPlus Buddy will improve maintenance efficiency and the quality of field work.

Development Background

As plants come to rely on ever more sophisticated and complex systems that increasingly enable the integrated management of multiple production facilities, production efficiency is improving. At the same time, it is becoming more difficult to identify the causes of failures and malfunctions in plant facilities, making maintenance a complex task. Furthermore, as an increasing number of skilled engineers reach mandatory retirement age, there is an urgent need to hire and train maintenance staff and managers.

Industrial IoT (IIoT) is seen as one means for making up for shortages of plant maintenance staff and assisting with the training of personnel. With IIoT, a system can be built that enables relatively inexperienced engineers to perform maintenance with the same efficiency and quality as more knowledgeable and experienced engineers. However, many manufacturers have hesitated to introduce such systems because of concerns about network security and the difficulty and cost of adding new infrastructure. To address this issue, Yokogawa has developed the SensPlus Buddy communication support service. With this service, users can visually transmit maintenance information to personnel in the field.

Source: yokogawa.com