A Remote Diagnosis System for Rotating Machinery Using Virtual Reality

Abstract

It is important to look for alternative forms of physical movement of people and equipments in order to assure diagnosis and maintenance tasks, especially in an environment where workers are subject to danger. An evident and classical solution is the use of the tele-operation and tele-robotics. If the tele-operation helps to solve a lot of real and technical problems, it still remains insufficient to assure an appropriate remote diagnosis and maintenance. The use of virtual reality techniques with the tele-operation can be the solution for an effective remote maintenance and diagnosis. In this paper we show the inefficiency occurred with the use of only tele-operation in the remote maintenance, we introduce our original new system where we use virtual reality techniques and 2D-3D matching (2D camera image-3D virtual objects) with tele-operation to remotely collect machinery vibration data. We explain its structure, implementation and its advantages. We finished by experimenting the system, measuring the different operating times and precision and discuss the results.