制造业中的沉浸式技术

尽管整个行业仍在不断努力推动全自动化“无人值守”制造系统的发展和应用，但相当一部分制造活动仍然需要人类的技能和灵巧性。在制造业中应用虚拟现实（VR）和增强现实（AR）技术，有助于人类精确、准确地完成这些任务。

沉浸式技术已超越其起源，从虚构作品发展为现实世界中的主流应用。智能手机的出现和广泛普及，加速了这些技术在大众中的传播。这些技术不仅吸引了全球人们的关注，也引起了企业的兴趣，企业们借此把握了公众对沉浸式技术的热衷。这促使企业开发以客户为中心的沉浸式技术应用；例如，在数字营销领域，各类规模的企业正越来越多地采用沉浸式技术——特别是虚拟现实和增强现实。然而，随着消费者对这些技术的新鲜感逐渐消退，企业正将目光转向内部，设计相关应用以优化其核心业务运营。虚拟现实和增强现实等技术在制造业中的应用，正是沉浸式技术从以消费者为中心向以员工和流程为中心转变的一个例证。事实证明，沉浸式技术与制造流程天然契合，因为它们能增强用户对流程的可见性，并在恰当的时机提供正确的信息——各大制造商的实际应用已充分证明了这一点。

制造业对沉浸式技术的需求

据《义乌制造》报道，自自动化和工业物联网（IIoT）引入以来，制造流程对人工的依赖程度已有所降低。越来越多的制造工厂正在采用业内称为“无人化”制造的模式，这种模式特别适合那些对精度要求极高，且对定制化、变体或检验需求极低的行业。适合采用无人化制造的行业包括：材料和化工加工厂、炼油厂、食品加工和包装厂，以及简单产品的批量生产设施。

然而，随着客户需求不断变化，当今制造的大多数产品也处于持续变化之中。因此，制造业必须具备高度灵活性，同时对缺陷也绝不容忍。尽管这些流程最终将通过通用机器人实现自动化，但就目前而言，它们仍需要人类双手的灵巧以及人类头脑的决策能力。与具备超人信息处理能力的通用机器人不同，人类无法快速处理海量信息，因此无法基于所有可用数据做出决策。他们无法像基于人工智能的系统那样感知或识别隐藏的规律；因此，从初始设计到最终检验，制造过程中涉及的各项任务都需要人类工人来协助完成。

虚拟现实与增强现实在制造业中的应用

尽管虚拟现实和增强现实技术在制造业中的应用仍处于起步阶段，但事实证明，这对行业参与者而言是一项重大的变革。通过提高工人生产率和工厂利用率——甚至有助于改进设计——这些技术有助于提高制造流程的效率。

Interactive Design

Extensive planning and design work typically precedes the production of a product. Functional product design is fundamental to product quality and a key driver of product value; manufacturers place great emphasis on design accuracy. Traditionally, designers have relied on two-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) models to test and iterate on products that are inherently three-dimensional. For products that cannot be tested in real time, designers typically use physical prototypes to evaluate the design. These prototypes are difficult to produce and even harder to redesign for experimentation and retesting. In addition to being costly, this process delays time-to-market (TTM) because physical prototypes require multiple reworks, and each iteration takes time to physically recreate the prototype.

Through virtual reality, designers can conceptualize products in three-dimensional space and test them in simulated environments until the design is finalized. In addition to minimizing time-to-market, virtual reality provides the ability to test products under anticipated conditions and identify design flaws that cannot be highlighted using traditional testing methods. This ensures that the manufactured products are design-correct and minimizes the likelihood of product recalls and other adverse consequences of product failure.

Smart Decision-Making

Manufacturing operations require agility to keep pace with the ever-changing demands of the market and customers. To achieve this, they need to be able to make decisions quickly, but also conduct in-depth analyses of available information. However, the volume of data required for safe and effective decision-making is often too large for decision-makers to easily process and understand. This leads to delays in the decision-making process, which in turn delays operations and ultimately undermines agility. It is becoming increasingly clear that the use of data visualization can enhance decision-making and ensure that not only can answers to existing problems be easily found, but new issues that drive higher performance and further growth can also be identified.

The use of virtual and augmented reality in manufacturing-related data visualization can accelerate the decision-making process at all levels of a manufacturing organization, from high-level strategic decisions to critical operational decisions.

Informed Maintenance

Equipment failures are a cause of unexpected production interruptions that require an immediate response from maintenance teams. Sometimes, maintenance teams may not be on-site and unable to restore equipment to full functionality in a timely manner. Data visualizations related to the performance and health of manufacturing equipment enable maintenance teams to identify equipment health issues that would otherwise go unnoticed. Using AR devices to guide non-technical personnel in resolving these issues ensures the smooth operation of production facilities, minimizes extended downtime, and maximizes plant and equipment utilization.

Quality Inspection

According to Yiwu Technical Documentation Institute, quality inspection is a critical component of the manufacturing process. As organizations strive to maximize productivity, they also emphasize improving product quality and consistency standards. To ensure high product quality, in addition to automated inspection methods, human quality inspectors often examine hundreds of units to identify defective ones. Due to staffing constraints, this can lead to inspectors overlooking subtle non-conformities. Combining augmented reality with artificial intelligence and sensor technology can even reveal subtle deviations in manufactured units, thereby achieving higher product quality standards.

Immersive Training

For manufacturing employees, on-the-job training is an essential prerequisite for performing their duties effectively and competently. This process takes time, and assigning inexperienced new employees to perform critical operations may compromise work quality and even lead to safety issues. Training new employees in a virtual reality environment allows them to gain the experience and proficiency needed to perform their duties without compromising productivity, quality, or safety.

The indispensability of virtual reality and augmented reality in manufacturing will become a widespread trend in the coming years—at least until high-performance and general-purpose intelligent robots replace us. However, it is also possible that as these and other technologies improve, they will make it easier for humans to participate in manufacturing; after all, we may not need robots for a very long time.