Augmenting the Workforce of the Future with Holograms

Mixed Reality technology and devices like the Microsoft HoloLens are transforming the construction and manufacturing industries.

To deliver projects on time, within budget, and with better communication between teams and partners. This greater efficiency in terms of time, money and resources is the very real promise which Mixed Reality is bringing to many industries. It’s not surprising, therefore, that we’re seeing increasing momentum in developing and applying these immersive technologies to sectors like manufacturing and construction.

The Soluis Group group recently secured a £1 Million Innovate UK grant to develop an Augmented Worker System (AWE) which pioneers the use of Mixed Reality for the construction industry. It will enable the intelligent design, construction, maintenance and whole-life value of buildings, supporting construction and infrastructure growth.

Soluis will work with partner organisations including systems consultancy Pinnacle Business Solutions, Carbon Dynamic — an innovative modular timber building construction company- and two High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres — the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) which is an internationally recognized centre of R&D for manufacturing technologies and metal forming and forging research.

“The integration of cutting-edge technologies into a data rich platform such as AWE will help push UK productivity forwards by enabling better communication and more effective decision making,” says Christopher Freeman, Augmented Reality Technical Fellow at AMRC, who sees these activities as central to the digitalisation of construction and infrastructure.

The consortium will be supported by key industry organisations that will comprise a steering group. These include AECOM, Doosan Babcock, Laing O’Rourke, Autodesk and Microsoft. With the construction sector being a key sector to the UK economy and one with a considerable growth opportunity, the government has been investing through its Digital Built Britain (DBB) programme