RealWear rolls out its enterprise HMT-1 wearable device in Groupe PSA automotive factories

In Augmented Reality News

January 8, 2020 – RealWear, Inc., provider of enterprise head-mounted wearables, has announced that French car manufacturer Groupe PSA has successfully rolled out RealWear’s flagship HMT-1 head-mounted enterprise wearables for its factory technicians to improve productivity and quality during the vehicle assembly process.

Groupe PSA, which owns car brands Peugeot, Citroën, DS Automobiles, OPEL, and Vauxhall initiated its ‘Glasses Assist’ project with RealWear in March 2018. Since that time, Groupe PSA workers have logged more than 10,000 hours on RealWear’s HMT-1 wearable computers. The 45 voice-controlled, fully hands-free headsets are currently in frequent use in factories in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Slovakia, Russia, Morocco, India, Argentina and Brazil, according to the company.

“Our fleet of HMTs was seamlessly integrated within our existing processes and passed all safety compliant requirements without question. We will continue to expand our HMT-empowered team with big plans ahead,” said Guillaume Calfati, who is in charge of new digital experiences and creative excellence at Groupe PSA.

Groupe PSA said it chose to standardize on RealWear due to its ruggedized construction and factory-friendly form factor. The HMT-1 device has been designed to be comfortable and convenient, clipping easily onto a hard hat or bump cap. It also includes a voice command interface that it can be learned quickly without the need for instructions.

The solution, which has been deployed in 80% of Groupe PSA’s factories to date with plans to expand, currently runs HPE Visual Remote Guidance (VRG), a secure, enterprise-ready collaboration software application. The application runs atop RealWear’s purpose-built Android enterprise platform, allowing for a visually guided two-way interactive communications session via 3/4G or Wi-Fi.

The assembly of cars is the last step in the manufacturing process. During this stage, Groupe PSA must bring together thousands of parts and suppliers and run quality control checks at every step to identify and resolve defects. The Groupe PSA project allows remote experts in other facilities hundreds of miles away to troubleshoot defaults in real-time during the manufacturing process and resolve them within minutes.

“We are thrilled to partner with Groupe PSA and HPE on another global deployment of our systems,” said Andy Lowery, RealWear’s CEO. “Groupe PSA has demonstrated successful long-term deployment of RealWear’s HMT knowledge transfer platform. This experience with HMT-1 is a success as the company will use this tool as a standard.”

RealWear stated that the partnership with Groupe PSA marks the third public automotive deployment of its wearable devices – Volkswagen UK, BMW being the other two automotive manufacturers that are utilizing the company’s hardware. RealWear added that other automotive firms are also piloting its products to assist with customer service and faster troubleshooting, including Toyota Lexus and Porsche.

Image credit: RealWear, Inc.

About the author

Sam Sprigg

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.