A remote diagnosis system for rotating machinery using virtual reality

It is important to look for alternative forms of physical movement of people and equipment 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 tele-operation and tele-robotics. If tele-operation helps to solve real and technical problems, it is still unable to assure appropriate remote diagnosis and maintenance. The use of virtual reality techniques with tele-operation can be the solution for effective remote maintenance and diagnosis. We show that inefficiency occurred with the use of tele-operation only in remote maintenance. We introduce our original new system where we use 2D-3D matching and virtual reality techniques with tele-operation to remotely collect machinery vibration data. We explain its structure, implementation and advantages. We finished by experimenting the system, measuring the different operating times and precision and discussing the results.