Industrial Metaverse: Supporting remote maintenance with avatars and digital twins in collaborative XR environments

Abstract

We present a 5G mixed reality toolbox that supports hands-free remote assistance in industrial settings. It provides mixed reality and virtual reality views for on-site and office workers linked via a shared digital space. Working on actual machines in a real production line, our system uses the actual CAD-data of those machines to provide for a realistic prototyping-environment. We focus on data-scarcity with cloud-services to protect intellectual property, while embracing the possibilities offered by new technology, such as remote rendering over wireless networks. The presented prototype exhibits several key characteristics of an industrial metaverse application.