Jamco America is aiming to make maintenance training for aircraft interior products more efficient through the launch of a new augmented reality (AR) training tool. The aircraft interior and services provider has partnered with mixed reality specialist Object Theory to create an AR training system to help mechanics in the field troubleshoot aircraft interior products.

According to Jamco, current maintenance training for its products relies on written training guides and maintenance manuals, video tutorials and face-to-face demonstrations. The new AR system, when paired with a Microsoft HoloLens headset, enables trainee mechanics to work on products hands-free, communicating step-by-step instructions to users alongside a guiding overlay on the product. Jamco says users have complete control over the pace of the work by selecting when they are ready to proceed to the next step, as well as easy access to documents such as component maintenance manuals.

John Cornell, Jamco’s senior manager, product research and development, says the product will initially focus on training mechanics to maintain the company’s Venture seat, but it could potentially be used on any interior product such as galleys and lavatories. The system’s remote assist functionality, which enables support representatives to communicate in real time with mechanics, is another area where Jamco sees potential use cases.

“The power of this system extends well beyond initial maintenance training. For example, one use being considered is to be able to support a maintenance issue at any destination in the world,” says Cornell. “Let’s say a seat has a meal tray that will not deploy. The airline’s local mechanic at the airport would be able to quickly use AR on a seat with minimal to no prior knowledge of the seat and be walked step-by-step to troubleshoot the problem in order to fix the seat and avoid the potential of a blocked out seat condition.”

While Jamco has initially focused on the system’s usage with the HoloLens 2 platform and Apple products supporting ARKit 2 or later, Cornell says the product is device agnostic and can be flexible with devices as the technology matures.

Jamco plans to launch the AR system at the beginning of April during the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg. The initial application launch will include seat maintenance training for Jamco’s business-class Venture seat, which is currently flying on airlines such as KLM and Air Europa.