Virtual and augmented-reality environments built on a plant's digital twin, used to train operators on startup, shutdown and abnormal-situation procedures without touching the live process.
AR-assisted remote expert support
Smart-glasses and tablet-based augmented reality that lets a remote specialist see what a field technician sees and annotate the live view.
Short entry. This page summarises our current placement. Full, sourced analyses are published first for the technologies closest to practical use; see the list of full analyses.
How it works
A field technician wears a head-mounted display or holds a tablet that streams live video and audio to a specialist elsewhere. The specialist sees the technician's view, speaks to them and can draw annotations, share a drawing or freeze a frame so that both are looking at the same detail. More advanced systems anchor instructions or equipment data to the object in view.
The whole chain has to work in the plant: a device that survives the environment and is usable with gloves and safety glasses, a wireless connection with enough bandwidth at the point of work, and a session that meets the site's security rules for video leaving the fence.
Why it matters
At its best, cuts specialist travel and shortens mean-time-to-repair for complex troubleshooting on remote or hazardous-area assets.
Where it fits
It is most useful where specialists are scarce and travel is slow or expensive: offshore, remote sites, vendor support during commissioning and factory acceptance tests witnessed from a distance. Many sites found during travel restrictions that a rugged tablet or phone delivered most of the benefit, with head-mounted devices reserved for genuinely hands-busy tasks.
Why we place it at the Reality Check stage
An early-2020s hype wave over-promised; usable, durable hardware and reliable connectivity in real plant conditions (glare, PPE, gloves, network coverage) took longer than vendors suggested. Estimated time to the Proven in Use stage: 2–5 yrs. What the stages mean.
Key risk
Hardware durability and battery life in hazardous, high-glare, PPE-heavy environments remain the practical barrier — the concept is sound, the field kit is still catching up.
Questions to ask before committing
- Is there reliable wireless coverage at the actual work locations, not just in the control room?
- Is the device approved for the hazardous area, and can it be worn with the required protective equipment?
- Who is permitted to join a session from outside the company, and is the video recorded?
Standards and terms to know
- Head-mounted display
- Smart glasses or a helmet-mounted screen and camera that leave the hands free.
- Annotation
- A mark drawn by the remote expert that appears in the technician's view.
- Remote FAT
- A factory acceptance test witnessed over a video link rather than in person.
Related technologies
See this entry on the full maturity map · All Control Devices entries · How placements are made. Stage and time-horizon placements are editorial judgements based on public information as of October 2026, not engineering, safety or investment advice; see the Terms of Use.