omlox and Hololight Make Industrial Asset Tracking Visible in AR
Omlox Success Story

Indoor Navigation: omlox and Hololight Stream

omlox solves an industry-wide problem. Hololight Stream enables the implementation. With augmented reality, the omlox tracking standard and the XR streaming solution strive for the revolution of industrial indoor navigation.

Machines, people, tools, and even drones and automated transport systems. Every production site has an unbelievable number of moving objects, making asset tracking an essential task. With the open omlox tracking standard, the independent organization PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) has introduced a worldwide industrial standard for tracking technologies. For the first time, information from all existing tracking technologies such as UWB, BLE, RFID, 5G or GPS can be used. In addition, there is an open radio interface in the omlox core zone, which lets each manufacturer track its devices within the open infrastructure. Augmented reality helps visualize the collected position data for on-site employees in real time — a use case that previously required expensive proprietary solutions.

Augmented Reality Should Make Tracking Data Usable

Real-time tracking data is the basis for more efficient processes. Machines and equipment can be used more efficiently and employees guided safely and quickly through industrial halls. omlox transfers all tracking data to a uniform coordinate reference system. An augmented reality application converts this data into information and makes it visible to the employee in real time.

"The limited computing and graphics power of the required smartphones, tablets or AR headsets presents a challenge here," says Eberhard Wahl, Head of New Business Technology at Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen and leader of the omlox Use Cases Workgroup at PI. "The connection of the mobile device to the omlox data hub must also be implemented." Complex data sets, 3D models, data streams and coordinate transformations cannot be meaningfully processed on the mobile device itself.

An additional factor is the open infrastructure setup of the omlox core zone. The position data is computed on a centralized server on the basis of the open omlox core zone infrastructure. This open infrastructure permits the simple and immediate absolute localization of AR devices. In addition, the factory manager retains sovereignty over all position data in the plant and can manage them centrally within the omlox architecture, facilitating further analyses such as the optimization of spatial processes.

When classic mobile AR hardware is used, tracking and machine data is stored locally on the device or on a connected cloud server — a potential privacy problem and entry point for security vulnerabilities. "The security of sensitive location data is a key issue for us, especially when mobile devices are finding their way into the home office and may get lost," Wahl says.

XR Streaming as the Enabling Layer

"We have made it our goal to combine the tracking world of omlox with the world of AR, with concrete benefits for the end user and process design," Eberhard Wahl says. To implement this, omlox relies on the XR streaming solution Hololight Stream. The software development kit (SDK) developed by Hololight is a remote rendering component that enables the streaming of entire AR and VR applications. As a result, computing power no longer comes from the mobile device itself, but is provided by a powerful local server or selected cloud — without restrictions.

Once Hololight Stream is integrated into the AR application, the app no longer needs to be installed directly on a terminal device. Instead, the AR application runs on a powerful server or in the cloud, connected to the omlox data hub. A simple client application on the mobile device sends tracking sensor data and position data to the server. There, the data is processed and returned to the client with the 3D content to be displayed. Through real-time streaming, AR content such as 3D machine models or live tracking data can be visualized with full detail and complexity — regardless of the device's own processing power.

The Open omlox Core Zone as a Main Enabler

"Countless location systems to support tracking in the augmented reality environment have existed for years," says Alexander Werlberger, co-founder and CTO of Hololight. "These systems, however, are all proprietary, which prevents widespread use." The open omlox core zone provides a reliable, open foundation for AR: the existing infrastructure can be used from any device. Based on the standardized interface, any manufacturer can implement an omlox core zone infrastructure or localization device. In this way, indoor navigation becomes as straightforward as outdoor navigation.

The open GPS used for outdoor navigation is replaced by omlox for indoor purposes. Just as AR can display navigation outdoors according to exact position, it can display navigation commands indoors in the same way. As a result, omlox addresses two core requirements for AR:

• Simple and open absolute localization of devices in the room directly after activation (omlox core zone)
• The provision of content for AR devices — where is what — via the omlox data hub

"In this way, omlox opens up application areas for AR indoors that were previously only feasible using expensive proprietary solutions," comments Werlberger. Even moving objects such as AGVs, people and assets can be tracked and displayed in the AR application using the omlox data hub API.

Everything Runs Through a Centralized Server

All computing processes — content rendering, application logic, omlox system integration — run through a centralized server via Hololight's XR streaming technology. This centralized architecture enables the precise combination of the tracking world with AR: the omlox core zone coordinate system aligns with that of the AR headset, and arrows, navigation instructions, machine data and tool positions are displayed on the AR headset of the end user in real time. On the back end, the AR application is controlled and maintained server-side, consistent with the rest of the omlox system. The device-agnostic approach of Hololight Stream also enables integration of additional devices such as Android and iOS smartphones without further development effort.

"Due to the open omlox architecture, products can be tracked end-to-end," explains Eberhard Wahl. "If an AR component is added, employees on site can also benefit from the data." Workers on site receive information on machine positioning, status information and safety routes on their display. With omlox, users can locate devices inside buildings with the same ease that GPS enables outdoors. With Hololight Stream integrated into the AR application, the system is also considerably more stable than conventional mobile AR approaches.

"Using Hololight Stream, we can combine a stationary system with a mobile algorithm," says Wahl. "And all that with centralized control." At the same time, streaming entire AR applications increases data security in the IoT — all data remains on the customer's chosen server and is never stored on the mobile device.

As Eberhard Wahl concludes: "With the AR application, we are redefining indoor navigation: no need to attach QR codes, no complex preparation of halls, and a precision that is significantly higher than that of comparable systems."