Client: Ameren Corporation

Challenge: Setting limits on the Limitorque valve actuator can be done incorrectly because it is a task that is not done frequently. The lack of repetition means that it takes time for workers performing related maintenance procedures to get up to speed, and/or leads to quality escapes.

Solution: For Ameren Corporation, Index developed an application with step-by-step 3D animations, images and instructions that outline precisely what a worker will need to do in order to properly set the limits. The application provides users with critical information needed for each step so that they can perform the task correctly each and every time regardless of unfamiliarity or knowledge degradation.

Client: Dominion Energy

Challenge: Understanding transformer basics (i.e. functionality, part identification, banking configurations, and the overall power generation and distribution process) is a challenge, especially without the capacity to bring a transformer into the classroom for visualization. Textbooks and paper diagrams are useful, but they don’t cultivate the skills required for working with and fundamentally understanding transformers.

Solution: The Dominion Transformer Training app allows lineman apprentices to visually see a transformer and apply the fundamental principles they have learned in the classroom. The app walks through the basics of transformer theory, displays the inner and outer workings of a transformer, and gives apprentices the ability to configure a transformer bank. Finally, in a 3D utility overview, the apprentice walks through the power generation and distribution process. By providing 3D and AR visuals of a transformer on a tablet, apprentices have access to a hands-on learning experience in the classroom. Instead of reading through textbooks and manuals, the apprentice can visually see and learn by doing.

Client: Georgia Power

Challenge: When electric transformers are incorrectly determined to be faulty and unnecessarily changed out, it is costly for the utility operator. Georgia Power sought to create a training tool to simplify complex troubleshooting tools and processes for new linemen so that they can avoid mistakes and re-work.

Solution: Index developed a step-by-step AR and 3D animation application that walks a new lineman through the correct procedure for using a Quick-Check device to properly test transformer functionality. The goal of this recently completed application is to enhance training and knowledge retention while reducing costly errors related to improper diagnosis and unnecessary change-outs.

Client: Waste Management

Challenge: Waste Management has a large fleet of trucks that need to be maintained on a regular basis. Two important maintenance tasks are valve adjustments and brake pad replacements which are very complex with hundreds of required and sequenced steps. Waste Management executives wanted to provide a tool that helps their mechanics with just-in-time information for each step in a maintenance procedure.

Solution: Index worked closely with Waste Management’s front-line expert mechanics, SMEs supervisors and managers to optimize the best-practice steps into an AR app that overlaid key information on actual truck components during maintenance.

Client: Fluor Corporation

Challenge: In October 2015, Fluor announced a $1 billion joint venture that would change the way large off-shore oil rigs were built. Fluor needed a way to effectively communicate this capability to their oil-major clients other than an 80-page PowerPoint presentation or an expensive and time-consuming on-site visit in China.

Solution: Index created a bilingual, interactive, 3D, AR map with views at the global, regional and facility-level, packed with information the Fluor sales team could share with oil-majors.

Client: Evergy (Formerly Westar Energy)

Challenge: Like other utilities, Evergy must roll multiple trucks to inspect, troubleshoot, remove, install, replace and program controllers on multiple different pole-mounted voltage regulators and control panels. Evergy wanted to provide its linemen the approved procedures to perform these tasks on each voltage regulator and control panel variant.

Solution: Index worked closely with Evergy’s linemen, engineering, experts and supervisors to capture the safest and best-practice procedures and build them into the AR app, now available to other customers as the LineAssist SuperApp®. The app recognizes five different controllers and provides the linemen the appropriate procedure step by step overlaid on the pole mounted voltage regulator and control panel.

Client: Index AR Solutions Marketing

Challenge: Augmented Reality is a visual technology. Describing AR or explaining how it can impact work is almost impossible without a visual, hands-on experience.

Solution: Index built an AR app deployed on Apple and Android devices that demonstrated an oil rig occupying 3D space, a 2D drawing coming to life as a 3D object, a construction aide for stud placement, an assembly aide for valve installment, an X-ray vision on a valve, and step-by-step work instructions for a valve.

Client: Dominion Energy

Challenge: Dominion constructed an above-ground manhole model for their trainees to learn the different scenarios that they will see in the field. They needed a tool to visualize the different scenarios in an empty manhole as well as build out the manhole using the AR tool.

Solution: Index worked closely with Dominion’s SMEs, supervisors and training experts to create an AR app that would overlay the different scenarios right over the actual manhole. The AR app also allows the trainee to identify the different components and build out the manhole scenarios.

Client: A Southwestern Utility

Challenge: A southwestern utility had two voltage regulators fail and consequently lost two separate substations. Dissolved gas analysis of several other regulators showed a high likelihood of more regulators failing in the future. The utility is rate sensitive and chose to maintain versus replace the regulators. They needed a way to effectively train people on tap change and maintenance procedures, capture best practices, reduce error rates and improve efficiency.

Solution: Index worked closely with the lead electricians, capturing knowledge transfer from the most experienced members, creating a step-by-step process to put into an app on a tablet. The app was given to a qualified electrician that had never done the procedure before but did the tap change and maintenance in two hours and reduced error rates by more than 90% from the traditional use of manuals and paper. This app is also bilingual in English and Spanish for ease of use.

Client: Ameren Corporation

Challenge: Ameren Corporation has a requirement to troubleshoot and replace thousands of routers and modems. For cost considerations, the company has chosen to have this task performed by their linemen rather than by a specialty workforce. Ameren needed a tool to help their linemen perform this new task safely and efficiently with minimal quality escapes.

Solution: Index worked closely with Ameren to create an AR app that overlays each step-by-step task over the actual modems, routers and collectors.

Client: Southern Company

Challenge: The utility wanted to explore new ways to boost worker safety, quality and capabilities. Company leadership sought innovative tools that would assist with knowledge transfer among workers while addressing cost and schedule considerations.

Solution: An AR app was built by Index AR in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Southern Company. Conveying situational awareness information, the app makes the invisible visible – displaying visual indicators of equipment health, capacity factors and required minimum clearances such as flame retardant (FR) zones in the substation. Later versions of the app will display detailed maintenance histories of equipment and include all of the directions needed to perform maintenance tasks using a lean process that includes step-by-step procedures, warnings and videographic recording of critical steps for internal and external compliance.

Client: Cisco Systems

Challenge: Concepts like cybersecurity and cloud computing can be abstract and difficult to fully understand for non-technical people. Cisco sought an innovative, easy-to-use way for its prospects to learn more about its solution offerings that went above and beyond traditional marketing methods.

Solution: The Cisco cybersecurity marketing and sales tool is a self-directed AR app that takes a person through all of the different levels of the Cisco Cloud business and the layers of security preventing cyber-attacks. The app is easy to use and conveys key data and information on the Cisco cybersecurity products. There is also an interactive simulation that allows a user to play the role of computer virus trying to penetrate the Cisco cloud.

Client: Riverside Health System

Challenge: Endoscopes are powerful medical instruments that help doctors examine internal organs. But without careful cleaning, endoscopes can carry potentially dangerous bacteria from one patient to another, introducing a potential health risk.

Solution: The Riverside endoscope app will use AR to help medical staff visualize the specific cleaning procedures required by an endoscope manufacturer – thereby addressing a significant health and safety issue faced by hospitals. The app contains a standardized best practice that ensures new technicians are taught the precise way to safely clean an endoscope and reduce the risk of infection from a medical procedure.

Client: MidAmerican Energy Company

Challenge: MidAmerican sought to increase quality outcomes and understanding of their Gas Tech Apprenticeship. In addition, the company wanted their training to follow their apprentices into the field as a valuable tool and reference, even after their apprenticeship is complete.

Solution: Index is working closely with MidAmerican’s managers, instructors, and SMEs to create an AR application and an e-book that serves as a highly effective and engaging way to deliver their Gas Tech Apprenticeship material. Packed with videos, imagery and contextual references to important standards and regulations, the app will include new ways to visualize the materials, tools and equipment used in the field. The multiple module app is also equipped with testing and feedback tools for instructors.

Client: MidAmerican Energy Company

Challenge: The source-transfer controllers used by electrical utilities to minimize power interruptions are complex, with multiple decision trees that often require a 4-6 hour schedule for an engineer to initially set up or reset. In addition, missed or incorrect steps can result in equipment damage, injury or service delays.

Solution: By helping workers visualize specific setup steps, the MidAmerican source-transfer controller app uses AR to address a common challenge in the electric utility industry. The app presents workers with an agreed-upon set of best practices, decision trees, and safety warnings at the exact time and place they are needed within a procedure. The app gives a qualified electrician the confidence to safely perform troubleshooting and start-up tasks with minimal errors or risk.

Client: Various

Challenge: Today’s youth thrive in the digital world of internet-connected apps and interactive touchscreens. The learning friction that is created when younger workers are trained with traditional textbooks, binders and PowerPoint presentations is challenging to the onboarding process and slows professional development as well.

Solution: Combining AR and eBooks creates an experiential learning tool that is well suited to a younger generation that grew up using computers and tablets. Index is partnering with MidAmerican Energy and Dominion Energy to create the first in a series of combined AR / eBook apps that bridge this learning gap. Complete with built-in dynamic feedback mechanisms, updates to these apps can be easily pushed out to users in training and in the field – overcoming the limitations of static traditional learning tools.

Client: Various

Challenge: How can the power of new, custom-built AR applications be shared with a broader customer audience in a way that also makes exceptional business sense for both the developer and the original client?

Solution: Index AR’s SuperApp® product development puts the power of custom AR applications to work addressing broader industry challenges. Through co-marketing agreements, clients involved in the original creation of an Index AR SuperApp® share in its future success as pre-packaged resale offering. Index AR currently has three SuperApps® in its library, with that number expected to grow exponentially.