Gradual acceptance

So far, the port sector has been hesitant to dip its toe in the augmented reality water. The adoption of the technology has been an arc from gaming to recreation to basic manufacturing and finally to complex industries, notably ports and commercial aviation, which entail a high degree of risk/safety.

This is the main reason for the slow acceptance among ports, and executives say technology developers need to pay more attention. The chief executive of a market-leading virtual/augmented reality business said in a research paper recently that teu throughput is the main consideration for technology, along with KPIs such as truck turnaround time.

But a US port technical specialist disagrees: “No, it is not. Safety, security and the environment are just as important.”

Military experimentation and testing, particularly in the US, is taking care of much of the safety aspect. One development is the US Navy’s Divers Augmented Vision Display, a high-resolution, see-through head-up display, embedded directly inside a diving helmet. Augmented Reality provides an image and outline of objects, overlaid on the actual diver’s vision. The developer team is now working on phase two, where components are being designed to include both helmet systems and full face masks. Once perfected, the system will be used for commercial salvage and repair – an obvious benefit for ports.

Cost questions

Another reason for slow acceptance of augmented reality (AR) is cost, still an uncertain factor. Clifton Dawson, chief executive of Greenlight Insights, a virtual/augmented reality analytical research firm in San Francisco, advises ports to take a close look at the cost vs. revenue balance. “The cost of introducing AR is coming down dramatically all the time but it’s not worth it in some industries such as basic/low cost product assembly. This could well apply to small ports.

“The cost of a Microsoft Hololens is $3,000-$4,000 per unit while simpler systems come in at least $1,000 a unit. Then the port has to factor in the sensors and cameras needed, plus the software costs,” says Mr Dawson. “Do they need one for each container stack or each yard of roadway? They might have a budget that allows only minimal coverage, which could well make the system impractical. A big cost area is reducing human error.”

An essential requirement for cargo movements at ports, says Mr Dawson, is to maintain absolutely reliable real-time information, where a glitch in the system can lead to costly and dangerous consequences. “Sensors can get blocked by trucks moving around – problems like that.”

Rob Smith, senior consultant at The Houston Consulting Group, adds: “Port operators need a resource that is not just trying to sell them a point solution of software and potentially hardware – they need a partner that can understand their specific operation and apply the specific pieces of technology to provide a true solution. The partners are difficult to find because on one side you have people who are (selling) and know the technology side of things. On the other, you have the knowledgeable consultants, who are operationally very talented, but typically do not understand the application of technology into operations.”

Port potential

Mr Smith believes the potential for AR in ports is great and that there is ROI could be within 12 months in some cases, especially when it comes to its use in training applications. “In relation to training in the industrial situations, there are other complementary technologies that can be used such as high-resolution spherical photos, combined with software that allows the visualisation of an asset without actually being there – in other words you can move training from out in the field where there are especially complex tasks into a safe environment that can increase the speed and quality of learning.

“The same is true as it relates to job planning and job safety analysis. With the technology implemented correctly people can review the job and the specific areas of a facility such as a port that they will be in and where the respective equipment is and the dangers around the equipment, such as crane movements.”

Mr Smith gives the example of a client who used a combination of technologies, including AR, to help crane operators. “They could familiarise themselves with the environment that they were going to be working in prior to actually going to the operation itself. This allowed for a thorough safety review and arguably a better-trained crane operator.

“Using a variety of technologies, you can also bring together real-time operating data and make it a key stroke or finger swipe away from the user, so the relevant data is where it needs to be when it needs to be there. This improves productivity and safety for the operations.”

Better visualisation

Martin Enevoldsen, business developer at Unity Studios in Denmark, says that one of the biggest strengths of AR is allowing users to study actual surroundings with a 3D overlay, such as with the Hololens, Meta2 and DAQRI Smart Helmet.

“Specifically for ports I would say the uses are product visualisation, project and process alignment, and training/education of employees and stakeholders.

“Augmented Reality allows users to visualise, and talk about, objects that are not present based on a 3D overlay. Within product visualisation this could be new buildings not built yet, it could be visualisation of workflows in order to instruct new employees, but it could also be virtual information management and sharing, which can be used to clarify tasks and provide information to the right people at the right time.”

Fox Chu, managing director of Accenture Ports, points out that ports have adopted virtual reality technology for more than a decade in training; with augmented reality, this can be advanced and the effectiveness could be further improved.

“In regards to the remote control tower, the adoption of AR could make the remote control towers a “real possibility”,” he added. “While the existing crane operators can adapt to office-based working environments best via the 360-degree vision offered by AR, new joiners can be trained and worked under the same (office) environment. In regards to maintenance, health and safety, of similar capacity, AR could enable remote workers for maintenance, inspection, etc.”

LACK OF UNDERSTANDING HAMPERING GROWTH

Augmented reality technology is generally not well understood in the port industry there is no one application provider focused specifically on applications for ports, says The Houston Consulting Group’s Rob Smith.

“From the port perspective, most operations are both manpower constrained and ‘siloed’, in that, for example, someone responsible for safety is focused on safety, and someone responsible for logistics is focused on that. Even though there is a top management person in any given port they get consumed by day-today operations and it is hard to keep up with technology and what it could mean to them.”

He points to the use of geotags to identify equipment precisely. “There might be a need to check the hydraulic oil on a crane. The technician might be new and not know where to look for the particular crane and even the actual part – an AR overlay can give the exact location.”

In the field of security, there might be a huge fire and emergency personnel could have their vision blocked; an AR overlay will allow the emergency services to get to assets to shut down the equipment.

“In the offshore business, AR is valuable in work planning – knowing just where to go on an oil platform and what the difficulties are – instead of finding them out when you get there.”