Jimmie Beacham is no gamer, but that didnβt stop him from hanging an Xbox console from a ceiling at work. As chief engineer for advanced manufacturing at GE Healthcare, Beacham, 43, is in charge of a futuristic laboratory in Waukesha, Wisconsin, experimenting with new ways to make things. He and his team are using the Xbox and a connected Kinect motion tracker to bring augmented reality (AR) into the factory and help workers become more efficient. βWe are projecting the work instructions onto the parts and use sensors to monitor the assembly and give feedback to the operator,β Beacham says.
Specifically, the Kinect and a camera are following the workerβs movements and feeding them to a computer that stores the assembly instructions. The computer controls an overhead projector that displays the manufacturing steps on the workbench. Based on the visual and sensory feedback, the system signals the operator immediately if an error occurs or guides them to the next step. Visitors to the lab can use AR to assemble a collimator similar to those used in computed tomography scanner (watch the video below).
Beacham first encountered augmented reality β which overlays graphics and video over the physical world β a decade ago in a science magazine. But the technology was still expensive and complicated, so he filed the idea away. He next ran into it two years ago at GE Global Research in Schenectady, New York. By then, kids all over the world had been logging thousands of hours on Microsoftβs Xbox and Kinect. A young GE researcher, Matteo Bellucci, who now works for GEβs Additive business, showed the technology and its AR applications to Beachamβs team during a regular monthly technology review. βWe instantly saw the value of a system that can guide you during work and collects sensory information to notice mistakes,β Beacham says. βThe price also got much better. We almost ordered one right there on spot.β
The system currently at the Waukesha lab came from Light Guide System, a Detroit-area maker of augmented reality tools for industry. The first applications are focusing on guiding workers through βthe critical steps where we canβt afford to make a mistake,β Beacham says. But his team has already started expanding its scope and connecting it to face recognition technology, collaborative robots, or cobots, and Predix, GEβs software platform for the Industrial Internet.
Beacham says that facial recognition will enable plant managers to ensure that workers at specific workstations have the required training. It also will automatically sign the employee into GEβs IT systems and allow him or her to start or resume the job after a break. βWeβre spending almost 100,000 hours a year on logging into our IT systems at GE Healthcare alone,β Beacham says. βThis saves time and money.β
Extending the AR system to cobots like Baxter or Sawyer from Rethink Robotics will allow the team in Waukesha expand the palette of tasks it covers to the β4Ds β dirty, dangerous, difficult and dull jobs,β Beacham says. βLetβs say the operator is doing assembly work. The cobot may take over and apply adhesive in a complicated pattern. When thatβs done, the human jumps back in and does the next step.β
Beacham says that facial recognition will enable plant managers to ensure that workers at specific workstations have the required training. It also will automatically sign the employee into GEβs IT systems and allow him or her to start or resume the job after a break. βWeβre spending almost 100,000 hours a year on logging into our IT systems at GE Healthcare alone,β Beacham says. βThis saves time and money.β
Extending the AR system to cobots like Baxter or Sawyer from Rethink Robotics will allow the team in Waukesha expand the palette of tasks it covers to the β4Ds β dirty, dangerous, difficult and dull jobs,β Beacham says. βLetβs say the operator is doing assembly work. The cobot may take over and apply adhesive in a complicated pattern. When thatβs done, the human jumps back in and does the next step.β