Augmented Reality for Manufacturing
Published by Engineering Employment · Monday 30 Dec 2024 · 2:00
Manufacturing is an area that is rapidly embracing Augmented Reality, (AR) and benefiting across the production process from training, prototyping, testing, manufacture and maintenance.How It Is Used
Training, AR is great for training across the spectrum. From basic mechanical assembly, health and safety awareness or showing people where the bathrooms are all the way up to brain surgery or precision space station repair.
In mechanical design virtual prototyping has long been taken advantage through various CAD, (Computer Aided Design) packages and Product Lifecycle Management, (PLM) systems. Engineers can design a single part, parts, system, sub system or device then add their virtual work into a larger entirely simulated product.
Augmented Reality however offers a more integrated experimental process. So rather than doing your design then submitting it into the larger simulation a Design Engineer may build their system in real time first simulating parts, configurations and other considerations to see how these adjustments effect the simulated finished product and then physically build that part in the real world, and so on through to completion.
Augmented reality is also a game changed in maintenance, rather than just a visual inspection technicians can overlay parts lifetime and maintenance data and so at a glance see what parts are likely to fail then service, replace etc as appropriate.
AR jobs in Manufacturing with expected salaries:
- Training Immersive Reality AR Engineer £40,000 - £130,000
- Augmented Reality Manufacturing Process Developer £50,000 – £100,000
- Wearable AR Engineer £32,000 – £60,000
- Android, Augmented Reality Engineer £35,000 - £55,000
- Rendering Specialist £45,000 - £90,000
Transferable skills and industries,
Manufacturing Process Specialists are the most obvious cohort to cross train into AR for Manufacturing however there are other, (less obvious) places to look for transferable skills. Game Development particularly with Unity, level build and rendering Engineers all have transferable skills. Then there are Computer Vision Software Engineers or AI specialists with strong practical or mechanical knowledge. Also 3D User Interface Engineers with voice interaction, decision making, deep learning etc. Are all relevant.
Best way to attract and retain Augmented Reality talent for Manufacturing. Advertise your job on a dedicated specialist job board such as Engineering Employment.