Many industries, including the aerospace industry, have been reshaped by augmented and virtual reality, offering numerous advantages. This technology is increasingly used in defense, space, and commercial aviation for various purposes, such as safety, simulation, battlefield imaging, training, enhancing the customer experience, and commercial aviation operations.
Aviation and aerospace are two other industries that use complex design mechanisms and structures. Visualizing navigating systems, air traffic control, weather, terrain, and airspace information are some of the key areas, in addition to many other complex applications of AR and VR in the aviation and aerospace industry. All these complex tasks require special attention.
Businesses globally have understood the importance of AR & VR. The global augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) market is expected to exceed USD 250 billion by 2028, up from around USD 28 billion in 2021.
Moreover, if you consider the market size of AR & VR in Aviation industry, it was valued $.91 billion in 2021 and is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 39.2% and reach $23.6 billion by 2031. This means that the application of AR/VR in aviation will only grow from here.
AR is a technology that overlays digital information on the user’s real-world view, enhancing their perception of the environment. AR can be used to assist pilots with real-time information about the aircraft’s surroundings, such as weather conditions, other aircraft, and terrain. This can be super helpful in navigation and boosting safety. Moreover, AR can be used by companies providing avionics engineering services to assist technicians in performing maintenance tasks by providing real-time instructions and information on the aircraft components.
On the other hand, Virtual Reality is a technology that transports the user into a completely digital environment. In the aviation industry, VR is used for flight training and simulation. Pilots and other crew members can use VR simulators to practice various scenarios in a safe and realistic environment, without the need for an actual aircraft. VR also has applications like training the air traffic controllers, providing them with a more realistic simulation of the airspace.
Let us understand in detail how AR & VR are helping Aviation & Aerospace solutions industry become more efficient.
Aerospace solutions engineers, in general, do not have access to learning materials that can assist them in their practice because they must deal with complex structures to learn and experiment, however, those complex and expensive parts cannot be used as learning tools. The learning process would be much faster and easier with the help of virtual reality solutions as AR/VR creates a simulated learning environment that allows engineers to work in a virtual environment and view complex structures to learn and manage them. Along with this solution, engineers can walk inside the aircraft’s simulated environment, where they can identify and study the parts and the flaws separately.
Even though flying is the safest mode of transportation, there are several safety aspects involved in the aviation industry, especially when an aircraft is in operation. AR and VR can aid in the visualization and interaction with aircraft parts by simulating the complex aircraft mechanisms used during the design phase. This allows the relevant personnel to visualize and make necessary changes before implementing or adopting any procedure into reality. As a result, AR and VR validate the airplane design process, resulting in a secure and safe product design & manufacture process.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have assigned airline codes to over 5,000 airlines that provide local, regional, and international airline services. In this day and age of fierce competition, businesses will go to any lengths to attract and retain customers. Therefore, virtual reality (VR) can be used by airline companies to improve customer experience and retention.
VR headsets are available for travelers who have trouble withstanding lengthy flight times or who have flying anxiety. These headsets have a high-definition screen with full audio and video experience that can transport them to a more relaxing environment.
Before flying a plane, pilots must be fully equipped and trained. They must first complete extensive hours of training on flight simulators, which are high-end professional training devices that are quite expensive. As airports are too crowded to give pilots a real-time experience and the real-world training environments require a lot of time and resources, the use of virtual reality, which creates an immersive real-life like flying environment becomes necessary and helpful. Pilots can practice and learn real-life processes through augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which helps them to perform better while also saving money and resources and minimizing risk.
For airlines, keeping their aircraft in hangars for Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) for longer periods costs them heavily. Every airline wants all their aircraft to fly as much as possible to increase their revenue. Remote maintenance assistance using Virtual Reality (VR) is a possibility for companies providing avionics engineering services, which are used to improve work efficiency so that maintenance staff can get instructions while they are doing the work. They can also communicate with their distant coworkers in real-time using pictures and videos, which increases productivity and offers a quicker fix as a result.
The manufacturing process will be improved by using AR/VR technology, which will also make it easier to train employees, ensure better aircraft maintenance, and reduce the risk to human life.
eInfochips has over 25 years of experience in end-to-end product development and has provided technological solutions for cutting-edge avionic engineering services and technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality. eInfochips has a deep understanding of various platforms thanks to technology partners such as Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instruments, and NXP.
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