Defense of Mr Corentin COUPRY thesis9:30 am | Amphi E | POLYTECH ANGERS | 62, avenue Notre-Dame du Lac 49000 ANGERS
The December 20, 2023
Subject : Mixed VR/AR approach, coupled with the digital twin concept, to support collaborative remote maintenance operations | Application to technical building equipment.
Director of thesis : Mr David BIGAUD
Abstract
Technological advances in Industry 4.0 have paved the way for new methodologies and technologies, including digital twins (DT) and extended reality (XR) tools. While these innovations are already widely exploited in industrial maintenance, their potential in the construction sector remains to be demonstrated. They promise to help decision-making by providing access to specific information, via XR, during maintenance operations, and by enabling behavioral simulations thanks to DT. However, the growing complexity of installations, combined with the need to call on external expertise during maintenance operations, calls for a rethinking of remote assistance methods, particularly in the light of environmental and health concerns. To meet these challenges, our research work, based on an in-depth review of the scientific and technological literature, focuses on exploiting these technologies to improve maintenance procedures. Firstly, a literature review assessed how XR tools and digital twins can enrich the information used during maintenance operations. This analysis highlights the value of leveraging BIM (Building Information Modeling) data to create a digital twin, as well as the improvements XR tools bring to the visualization of this data. In addition, a study of existing collaboration solutions revealed the requirements and constraints inherent in collaborative work between a field operator and a remote expert, such as the need for a common work environment and difficulties in synchronizing exchanges. In a second phase of our research, building on these findings, we developed an architecture to improve collaboration during inspections between an on-site operator and a remote expert, using the visualization capabilities of XR tools and the data from the installation's digital twin. This led to the creation of the DT-RAMCoRE solution, enabling information to be shared via indirect manipulation of the plant's digital twin using the RAMCoRE method. Aware of the diversity of XR devices and the rapid evolution of the technology, we designed this solution with the aim of ensuring its durability and interoperability between the different media available, thanks to the OpenXR standard. By analyzing a case study, we have demonstrated that using the DT-RAMCoRE solution during a collaborative inspection enables the operator to understand the information transmitted by an expert more quickly than with a conventional approach based on a video call, while reducing errors linked to the identification of plant components. In conclusion, we formulate recommendations for optimizing the information provided to collaborative players. Finally, we have developed a simulation concept, a component of the DT, to provide the operator in the field and the remote expert with advanced analysis tools to facilitate inspection work. As a perspective to this work, we present a methodology for exploiting DT simulation models via XR tools.
