Augmented Reality Maintain And Troubleshoot Industrial Plants Remotely Using AR

Remote maintenance and visual support—how AR and smart glasses can optimize maintenance and troubleshooting processes and the benefits they bring.

Rolf Behrens is the managing director of Bitnamic GmbH.

Nadja Müller is an editor for Wordfinder.

Remote maintenance and visual support are familiar terms to many companies in mechanical engineering: external experts support on-site technicians via video call in maintaining and troubleshooting their systems. This service is part of the business model of machine builders—but it does not necessarily have to take place at the customer's facility. It can also be conducted as a remote call, as a phone or video connection with the technicians on site. However, a service case does not always proceed smoothly. Sometimes there can be obstacles and understanding problems between the service experts of the machine builder and the technical specialists on site at the customer. This is especially true when the sale and subsequent service of machines or systems take place worldwide.

Obstacles can arise from language barriers, different naming of machine parts, or lack of standardization in the training of on-site personnel. For maintenance processes in industrial companies, it can be beneficial to expand remote services with augmented reality (AR). The smart glasses used in this process enable visual support: the visual impression significantly facilitates diagnostics and is clearly superior to verbal descriptions. The remote experts can assume the technician's viewpoint on site, guide them, and show them the necessary steps.

AR Versus VR

Augmented reality is not to be confused with virtual reality: the latter is a virtual representation of the world into which a person fully immerses. Augmented reality, on the other hand, means that the material world, which a person continues to perceive, is enriched with virtual elements: smart glasses can display context-relevant information directly in the technician's field of vision. This includes warnings for high voltage, as well as instructions and illustrations from manuals that visualize workflows step by step. Annotation functions can highlight relevant areas with circles, arrows, or text, simplifying the flow of information.

AR is Not the Same As AR

One must further differentiate between the use cases of AR light and 100 percent AR. In the former, the technician wears smart glasses like the Real Wear Navigator 520 or Vuzix M400. These are models that resemble a headset. They use a 2D screen in the field of view and are comparable to a smartphone's functionality—with the difference that the display is a digital assistance screen in the peripheral view. Information can be sent to and received from external experts—such as videos, images, instructions, and documents. However, AR light does not provide a true overlay of reality. For that, smart glasses like the Microsoft Hololens or Apple Vision Pro are necessary, which the technician wears as a head-mounted display (HMD) in front of the eyes. They enable overlays and blending in the entire field of vision, achieving 100 percent augmented reality in the entire real space.

The functionality of augmented reality maintenance depends on the hardware, technology, and complexity of the smart glasses. High-quality models can capture the space, its geometry, and depth with sensors and cameras. A scanner tracks the space and the system recognizes the smart glasses wearer's location. 3D objects can be integrated into the field of vision. Since they are spatially anchored, they stay in place even when the person moves. Effects like rotating and layering objects become possible, allowing required components to be virtually oriented within the field of view to clearly explain an assembly process.

Functionality And Necessary Investments

A 100 percent AR smart glasses merge reality with virtual content. Through precise visualization, appropriate overlays with object superimposition, and greater functionality, workflows in maintenance and repair can be further simplified. However, this advanced augmented reality function requires a higher investment, as smart glasses for implementing 100 percent AR are significantly more expensive than the AR light variants. Additionally, your software must support the smart glasses—a simple app is not sufficient to utilize the full breadth of functions. Companies then need clarity on which smart glasses they want to use and which additional functions are necessary for their application case. Therefore, the implementation is more complex.

Additionally, there may be challenges related to plant and occupational safety that can be clarified in advance:

• When using smart glasses and visual support software, the ability to pixelate (for example, employees on the shop floor) and sensitive data can be advantageous for data protection.

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  Date: 08.12.2025

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• Smart glasses do not conflict with a helmet requirement. The wearing of the glasses and comfort with a helmet can be tested in advance during work.

• Smart glasses should sit securely on the head to prevent them from slipping or falling off.

• With Apple's glasses, the technician also views the world through cameras, which can lead to safety issues with rapidly moving parts of a machine.

The AR light devices offer a smaller range of functions but are a good entry point into industrial remote maintenance. They are also more robust and withstand shocks. Additionally, their implementation and use are straightforward. Mostly Android-based, the input options (voice, buttons), interfaces, and font sizes of the apps to be used only need to be adapted to the display. Overall, they are also easier to learn to handle.

Remote Maintenance With Smart Glasses

Smart glasses offer a decisive advantage over devices like smartphones in remote maintenance. They allow a technician to have both hands free while working on the machine. Smartphones, which can also conduct support calls, do not offer this possibility. The technician does not need to carry a smartphone or tablet. The view of the device is eliminated, and it does not need to be aligned or held. Especially in more extreme scenarios, such as repairing a wind turbine, this is indispensable. Since the camera of the glasses is directly at the technician's eye, communication is simplified: in this way, the external expert can more quickly understand which component is being focused on. Processes of maintenance, repair, troubleshooting, and fault resolution can be carried out more efficiently, interactively, and clearly.

In the majority of cases, visual support is also conceivable via a smartphone. However, it is important that the software used for this, such as Bitnamic Connect, is capable of covering visual support via smartphone, augmented reality light, and augmented reality in all cases.

Remote Service With IoT Integration

Visual support or remote maintenance can become even more effective through the integration of IoT and thus machine data from sensors. The data connection is made via an IoT gateway. For example, a digital twin of an industrial robot as part of a production facility can be created. Its sensor values can be transmitted via a cloud connection and visualized live on the model. If an error occurs, the affected component can be highlighted in color and the error text displayed. A remote maintenance session can be initiated via software if needed. The external expert then sees not only the field of view of the technician on site, but also the IoT sensor data and the robot's error message. With this information and the networking of machine data and infrastructure, the problem can be resolved quickly, or troubleshooting can be carried out efficiently.

The Future of Maintenance Processes

Maintenance and repair processes in the industry can be made efficient with augmented reality and smart glasses: the technician can work on the machine with free hands while the external expert receives all relevant information. Thanks to the advanced AR variant, 3D objects can be overlaid in the technician's field of view to visualize precise work instructions. With the appropriate software, IoT data can also be integrated into remote maintenance.

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