Airbus Will Use Mixed Reality To Help Airlines Design Their Cabins

[Lightwreather]

Summary

 So, Airbus has unveiled a new way to design cabins and customise aircraft interiors for airline with the use of Mixed reality at the Paris Airshow. The manufacturer has named the concept the “Airbus immersive remote collaboration.” This is slated to roll out in 2025 starting with their a320 family of aircraft.

There is also a video that offers some perspective as to how the tech might work, it'll be linked in the sources section.

Source: Airbus (via simplifying.com)

Quotes

Quote

The brand-new concept is poised to overhaul the way Airbus defines aircraft interiors. By utilising holograms and virtual reality technology, customers will be able to visualize and essentially step inside a 3D model of the interior of their desired aircraft. 

The technology is versatile enough to allow customers to interact with the environment and make changes that they desire. They can change the cabin configurations, seat types, materials, colors, and any other customizable option. It also allows them to provide designers with real-time feedback.

The introduction of this program is the latest in a slate of programs to improve future aircraft and make the manufacturing process seamless.

 

Quote

The company had this to say about the advent of the program, “This innovative concept builds on Airbus' experience of mixed reality technology in industrial environments and highly-accurate visualization of aircraft interiors.”

My thoughts

I will admit, I had not thought of this as a use case, but it does make sense now that I think about it. Admittedly, I do not have the foggiest idea as to how much the design phase impacts airlines (I would assume not a lot in terms of time-scale), but this does seem to have the potential to bring major cost savings in this field. That said, It won't be available to airlines until 2025, so we might have to wait a good while after that to see the effects.

Side-note: It appears that they are currently using Microsoft's HoloLens for this.

 

Sources

Simple Flying [Quoted]

Airbus:

 

[williamcll]

The Sims, but planes.

[Sauron]

7 hours ago, Lightwreather JfromN said:

I will admit, I had not thought of this as a use case

Because it doesn't make any sense, the only criterion they use while designing plane interiors is trying to fit in more seats while keeping them bearable to sit in. At most they might take your input when choosing colors and patterns which are completely irrelevant.

7 hours ago, Lightwreather JfromN said:

this does seem to have the potential to bring major cost savings in this field.

How? What is being saved?

7 hours ago, Lightwreather JfromN said:

Side-note: It appears that they are currently using Microsoft's HoloLens for this.

Do you have a hololens in your house so you can interact with airplane cabin designers of all things?

[aisle9]

Side note: lol @ Airbus for "buying" a plane purely to piss Boeing off, then realizing a few years later that oops, they're accidentally killing the smaller A320 variants (A319, A320) with their own jet.

[bcredeur97]

spirit will find new ways to give you less space with this

[Quackers101]

lol, but much cooler with ar is the engineering side

7y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKk_WijFUOA

[leadeater]

8 hours ago, Sauron said:

Do you have a hololens in your house so you can interact with airplane cabin designers of all things?

When they say customers they mean airlines, not passengers.

[DildorTheDecent]

I guess Ryanair can finally test their standing seat theory. Find the optimal layout to get planes crammed full of people.

[leadeater]

5 minutes ago, DildorTheDecent said:

I guess Ryanair can finally test their standing seat theory. Find the optimal layout to get planes crammed full of people.

I think multi-layer squatting room only will fit more, 2 maybe 3 levels. First class, being able to stand up.

[DANK_AS_gay]

39 minutes ago, DildorTheDecent said:

I guess Ryanair can finally test their standing seat theory. Find the optimal layout to get planes crammed full of people.

I'd be fine with standing if they sped up. They fly these things at a snail's pace to save on fuel.

[leadeater]

23 minutes ago, DANK_AS_gay said:

I'd be fine with standing if they sped up. They fly these things at a snail's pace to save on fuel.

Get out and walk? 

[Lightwreather]

14 hours ago, Sauron said:

How? What is being saved?

I was thinking more along the prototyping phase in cabin design, but if you actually know what the biggest costs are in designing cabins, I'd be happy for you tell me (I'm serious, do tell)

14 hours ago, Sauron said:

At most they might take your input when choosing colors and patterns which are completely irrelevant.

I'm fairly certain this is for airlines and the manufacturers/designers of the seats themselves, I don't think this is a customer facing product.

[Sauron]

9 hours ago, leadeater said:

When they say customers they mean airlines, not passengers.

ah fair enough, still it seems to me that designing the seats would be pretty much a one off thing for each plane type and within the same airline the seats will likely look more or less the same anyway...

[Senzelian]

19 hours ago, Sauron said:

How? What is being saved?

I assume what they did previously was to have an empty airplane ready that then needed to be filled with seats and all the other crap to demonstrate to customers. Maybe they even had multiple sections of a plane to demonstrate different materials and equipment. Now you can do all of that virtually.

 

The cost saving here is obviously not for the customers. It's for Airbus.