Consumer virtual reality (VR) may have been the catalyst for the current immersive revolution but its in the enterprise sector where some of the biggest leaps are being made. One of those is collaborative VR. The coronavirus pandemic forced companies to close offices and rethink how their workforces could continue, leading to a rise in XR solutions. One company which was doing this already is SkyReal, designing engineering software focused towards aerospace.
Unlike many in this space, SkyReal isn’t a new fledgeling company in the traditional sense. In fact, it was originally conceived internally at Airbus before being spun off as its own separate entity. The idea was to create a software solution that could help companies through the various stages of manufacturing, from conception, industrialization and maintainability to human factors, training and marketing.
As an Airbus spin off this has meant a focus towards major aerospace companies like Airbus, ArianeGroup, Stelia Aerospace or Ascent Aerospace (all of which are customers). SkyReal enables them to turn their CAD files into an interactive and immersive experience which can be viewed at 1:1 scale if needed.
The great benefit of a digital prototype is that it can be easier and quicker to make changes than a physical version which are far more complex and expensive to produce. This process also means clients and engineers can see and touch designs with relative ease.
But SkyReal isn’t purely about creating the next continent crossing plane, its a piece of engineering software that can be used for all sorts of vehicles such as cars and boats.
There are three components which make up the SkyReal Suite, SkyPrep, XR Centre and SkyReal VR. As the name suggests SkyPrep gets you started by turning those CAD models into VR ones. XR Centre is the web-based component dedicated to collaboration and data management, while SkyReal VR is the core solution where users can explore designs with others.
Currently, SkyReal is about to release v1.12 of its software adding new functionalities like a poseable manikin to help simulate workers tasks – it no good building something if engineers can get inside to maintain it. Or how about being able to simulate an assembly task and check the feasibility process?
SkyReal offers a free demo compatible with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive for companies interested in testing the solution. For further updates on SkyReal as well as other VR collaboration solutions, keep reading VRFocus.