A state-of-the-art Extended Reality (XR) facility, regarded as the leading XR showcase in the UK, has been officially opened by Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise Ivan McKee MSP in Ayr.
The Aerospace Digital Visualisation Suite (ADVS) gives Small or Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), free access to the very latest XR and digital visualisation technologies to help them grow their business in the aerospace and space sector. The use of the ADVS technology is limitless, from offering companies the chance to walk through their new factory before it exists, to building a new product virtually, or providing employees with safe training in a sandpit environment.
Delivered by South Ayrshire Council, the ADVS facility is based within the Aeronautical Engineering Training Centre at Ayrshire College. The project has been established following a successful bid to the Advancing Manufacturing Challenge Fund (AMCF), led by South Ayrshire Council and its partners, which saw a total of almost £1.1 million being allocated from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and match funding by the Council.
Offering an unrivalled suite of technology and equipment, not collectively available anywhere else in the country, the ADVS enables engineering companies to innovate, develop skills and improve their productivity through the three main XR technologies of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
In conjunction with their partners, including the University of Strathclyde and National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), the ADVS team works closely with companies to identify XR solutions to everyday industry challenges, with the added bonus of saving time and money. CeeD also supports the project as part of the Advancing Manufacturing Cluster Builder programme.
Since being operational, the ADVS has worked with almost 50 companies, which for some, has resulted in securing lucrative contracts. One example is Chevron Aircraft Maintenance based at Prestwick. The company had the opportunity for a new contract, provided they could fit an Airbus A330 and a Boeing 737-8 side by side in their hangar. The ADVS team carried out laser scanning and modelling of the hangar showing the prospective customer that this was possible, and Chevron won the contract.
Extracted from CeeD website read more here