Unlock the Value of AR, MR, and VR for Construction

Discover the benefits of these technologies for your business. AR, MR and VR provide an augmentation system that enhances your existing workflows and help you make the most of your information resources. Construction companies are using these innovations today to improve their design processes and identify opportunities for improvement before installation and construction even begins.

Trimble patented its GPS-driven, hardhat-integrated, augmented reality headset back in 1997. They realized 35 years ago that augmented reality is a better way to present and work with project information.

Reading plans on a typical construction job is an art that not everyone has mastered. The hardware needed to deliver that model and it has become increasingly compact from the days of being tethered to desktop computers to today’s wearable technology.

Major software developers like Microsoft, Google, and Apple now view augmented reality as the user interface of the future. Products like the Trimble XR10 with Hololens 2 represent rugged hardware solutions that are built to meet the industry’s needs. Trimble’s Mark Nichols and Jordan Lawver recently outlined the distinctions between VR, AR, and MR, each of which is applicable to construction applications.

The two explained how these complementary solutions augment existing data and workflows by making better use of information resources. By delivering a better user interface, AR, MR, and VR enable crews to extract more value from existing digital models. The technology has applications across the project lifecycle for all branches of civil engineering.

This improved interface enables stakeholders of all backgrounds to understand the impacts of decisions like minor variances from existing codes. Sharing the same digital model enables onsite crews to collaborate more effectively and take better advantage of prefabrication techniques.

The enhanced models prevent costly assembly errors and simplify clash detection. Teams can uncover and solve issues earlier in the project timeline. The technology also enables remote support from offsite experts, reducing travel time.

Onsite workers can walk around the site and show their concerns to offsite experts. They don’t have to explain the problem verbally, and the expert doesn’t have to visit the site in person.

Being able to see life size, real world, true-to-scale models of the planned structure inspires stakeholders to suggest improvements earlier in the process. This results in better solutions for end users.

AR, MR, and VR technology unlocks the power of 3D data. The ROI on exploiting information resources lies in efficiency gains. Teams work both faster and smarter throughout the construction process by eliminating miscommunication and working with a common vision of the intended result.