Design Interactive Wins Phase I SBIR

Design Interactive, Inc. (DI) was awarded Phase I SBIR with the US Navy with their proposed Augmented Reality Technician Inspection for Surface Anomalies and Noncompliance (ARTISAN) Solution.

ARTISAN will provide crucial operational support for Naval aviation corrosion and non-destructive inspection. Corrosion alone is responsible for more than 20% of the U.S. Navy’s maintenance costs, accruing more than $8.5 billion annually. Currently, every fleet is required to perform pre- and post-trip inspections in addition to performing routine preventive maintenance on all their assets. This new augmented reality (AR) inspection feature will standardize the inspection process while providing the end user with step-by-step procedural support documentation for historical reference.

ARTISIAN is the latest award, which will allow DI to expand upon the AUGMENTOR product line.  AUGMENTOR is an AR maintenance and repair software solution for fleet technicians, providing end users with an intuitive authoring platform to create spatially placed procedural guidance of processes and procedures. Taking this a step farther, ARTISAN will provide AR-based operational support regarding non-destructive inspection processes to aviation maintainers.

Additionally, the solution will also allow for real-time capture of corrosion data to be used as cataloged historical data, via AR devices. The AR captured material will then be stored within a repository for expert maintainer review, verification, and logging. Over time, this process will lead to an organized catalog of historical data that can be used as refresher training, job performance aids, and/or the input data needed for predictive modeling and analyses.

DI will deliver a prototype system in December 2020. If selected for the Phase II, ARTISAN will result in increased work efficiency and decreased time for inspection by providing an intuitive, user-friendly design that will allow maintainers to identify the severity of corrosion more quickly and accurately.