The pilot project between Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) and Keppel Corp subsidiary and major Singaporean telecommunications company M1 Ltd has received a grant from the Singaporean government’s Ministry of Communications and Information
The companies are partnering to trial use of 5G Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) ‘smart glasses’ across various activities at Keppel O&M’s shipyard in Singapore.
The ‘smart glasses’ are equipped with a camera lens, microphone, micro speaker, and cellular or WIFI reception and use edge computing software that can perform real time analyses and provide data to the wearer.
The device enables the wearer to communicate with a receiver or control room and contains a micro-projector that can project a digital overlay of text and images within the wearer’s field of vision.
Singaporean shipbuilder Keppel O&M said it believes the technology has multiple applications in different phases of a project’s construction. The technology is being tested on a number of operations including site inspection, digital twin virtualisation remote monitoring and remote visual walkthrough.
Keppel O&M said the pilot project is part of its strategy to use digitalisation and virtual technology to enhance the efficiency of remote operations for its workforce.
Keppel O&M CEO Chris Ong said “During the Covid-19 pandemic when safe management measures limited physical inspections and site surveys, we were the first to officially conduct remote inspections for a newbuild vessel with a classification society using smart glasses.”
“Today, we are further expanding its use to not only improve the efficiency of delivering projects and enhancing yard operations but also widening our capabilities to provide digital solutions for our customers’ assets.”
For site inspections, inspection personnel wearing smart glasses will be able to view tasks and instructions that can be managed with voice-commands via the headset, replacing physical checksheets and drawings. Keppel O&M said “remote expertise and coaching” can also be provided via the platform to reduce the manhours required for on-site quality inspection and control by as much as 50%.
The AR application allows the monitoring of equipment performance and on board system parameters via real-time sensor data. Field engineers can use these AR assisted devices to capture and stream live data to their main office to receive real-time remote guidance.
Keppel O&M said sensor data can also be overlayed on the site engineer’s field of vision, displaying key information such as the equipment’s real-time critical performance and condition during operations to troubleshoot and rectify issues. This application aims to improve field engineers’ efficiency by 40%.
Smart glasses can also be used to conduct remote virtual walkthroughs of a vessel allowing personnel to perform pre-construction feasibility assessments simultaneously, enable potential engineering design issues to be identified earlier and mitigate pre-construction risks.
M1’s CEO Manjot Singh Mann said “Through M1’s robust 5G network, smart glasses can provide a high-bandwidth immersive AR/VR environment that enables highly detailed representations and real-time information to be relayed to users and control centres. The successful introduction of the smart glasses solution at Keppel O&M is a useful test case that can be scaled and replicated to boost operational efficiency and safety across businesses and industries.”
The project received a grant from Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) 5G Innovation Programme for the development of virtual platform services. IMDA is a statutory board under Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information.
