How AR Improves Support for Remote, Isolated Rigs

You quickly realize that they describe things in a completely different way to you. You may struggle to remember exactly where something is, or what it looks like. You’re essentially doing this whole thing blind. It inevitably makes you both anxious and frustrated - and increases the risk that the problem won’t be fixed correctly.

Now, imagine you could see exactly what the other person was looking at while you were trying to explain. How much more effective would your instructions be?

This, in a nutshell, is how AR technology works. It overlays text, images, videos or other media onto what the person can see in real life.

This content might provide information or context to help the person understand what they see, or it might guide them through a specific task. The most sophisticated examples, which incorporate AR headsets, allow someone offsite to talk them through the problem or to annotate screenshots and videos from their current perspective.

These capabilities are useful in any large business, but when you’re dealing with remote oil rigs, they could save lives.

Remote rigs, especially offshore ones, essentially become their own small communities. Workers living on them are often cut off from the world for long periods of time. That’s all very good for day-to-day operations, but if something goes wrong, they need to know they can get help quickly.

In the past, this could have been very dangerous. How do you keep your remote team connected no matter where their rig is located? How do you deliver the support they need and answer their burning questions fast?

In a crisis, you’ll be hard-pressed to transport support personnel to these physical locations fast enough to avert danger. Given the hazards that come with working on a rig, that presents a serious problem.

From gas leaks and explosions to equipment failures and weather-related blackouts, a lot of things can go wrong on a remote rig. How much peace of mind would it give your team to know that they can get someone to walk them through the problem, even if they’re in the middle of nowhere?

Using AR technology could create an invaluable communication channel between your remote workers and your central maintenance and safety team. Many oil companies are using AR to explore new ways to deliver training, guide personnel through repairs and prevent accidents.

It can’t eliminate the risks of working on a rig, but it can help your team to respond to problems in better, faster, safer ways - and to feel more supported when they do.

Learn more about our solutions for the oil and gas sector

Be always the first to know by subscribing to our newsletter