Virtual reality (VR) has struggled to move far beyond gaming circles and specific industrial use cases like medical training, but with the growing metaverse movement backed by tech heavyweights like Meta, there’s new hope (and hype) around. The hope that virtual worlds bring.
Just yesterday, Los Angeles-based AmazeVR announced $17 million in funding to grow its virtual concert and “musical transformation” platform. And last week we saw the mighty Epic Games invest in UK metaverse infrastructure company Hadean, as part of the Fortnite creator’s wider metaverse expansion plans. Hadian himself recently signed a contract with the British Army and is currently working on simulations ranging from Minecraft to ground warfare.
And it’s against this backdrop that six-year-old Irish startup VRAI is planning to capitalize on VR demand by raising new funding to expand its flagship “Hazardous Environment Awareness Training” (HEAT) product to more locations. Starting with the offshore wind industry.
Founded in Dublin in 2016, VRAI has built a simulation platform that combines VR with data capture, analytics and machine learning (ML) to provide clients with measurable insights and improve training outcomes. The company already has some notable clients, including British multinational arms and defense contractor BAE Systems, which recently struck a deal with VRAI to provide military training in VR.
BAE Systems is using VRAI. Image credits: BAE Systems
War aside, it’s becoming clear what benefits VR can bring to dangerous environments that are, by definition, dangerous to human life – recreating such situations in a virtual space can reduce accidents and many other costs associated with traditional training.
VRAI managing director Pat O’Connor told TechCrunch: “Traditional training for high-risk, remote and rare work environments is expensive, difficult to measure and very difficult to measure in terms of effectiveness. “Traditional simulators are only available for large roles, they are not scalable, and often They are as expensive as the actual equipment.
Energy crisis
As wind turbines, often located far from the sea, are becoming larger and more complex, they are increasing the occupational hazards for maintenance and installation workers in the field – from extreme weather conditions, falls, drowning and more. While VR cannot replace the need to be physically present at a site, it does can Reduce the time required to attend for training purposes.
With that in mind, VRAI is focusing its efforts on industries beyond aerospace and defense, targeting the offshore wind industry — which has been exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine following Europe’s energy crisis. The UK government recently increased its offshore wind target by 10 gigawatts (GW) to 50 GW, aiming to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and promising to improve planning processes and commissioning times for new installations. .
Other countries are looking to step up their offshore wind game – earlier this week, Portugal raised its first offshore wind auction target to 10 GW, up from 6-8 GW previously. The wider European Union, on the other hand, took in 14.6 GW of offshore wind power last year, a figure that was higher than in 2015. It will grow 25 times by 2030.
However, any market looking to grow its wind power capacity must increase the resources it puts at its disposal, and that includes developing its workforce – so VRAI’s entry into the fray couldn’t have come at a better time.
“We believe our technology will help make offshore wind energy faster, safer and more intuitive,” said O’Connor. “We initially focused on industries with a long tradition of simulation, such as aerospace and defence, but our vision is to democratize simulation training by bringing high-level simulation capabilities – the exclusive domain of elite roles such as pilots, surgeons and F1 drivers – to anyone who wants it. , when you need it, when you need it.
Training day
Although VRAI is open to work with any industry, it is looking to solve a specific pain point in renewable areas, some studies suggest that one of the main obstacles that prevent oil workers from moving to neighboring industries such as wind is training – which often requires absorbing the costs themselves. And VRAI goes some way to solving this.
“The wind energy industry’s International Wind Organization (as part of its training standards) has identified a need for 500,000 skilled technicians over the next four years to meet the growing global demand for renewable energy,” O’Connor said. “Current training for this industry is very traditional, and requires people to travel to remote locations to practice physical equipment. With VRAI, we can train those people in VR instead, providing targeted fidelity simulation ‘on demand.’
What this means is that training comes to a person rather than taking time out of the person’s schedule to travel.
“We believe industries with above-average spending on training, and those focused on high-risk, remote or rare locations, will benefit the most from this technology,” O’Connor said. “VR simulation has the added benefit of reducing the cost and carbon footprint of traditional training.”
To extend its reach into the offshore wind industry, VRAI today announced it has raised £3 million ($3.2 million) from a VC firm led by Northstar Ventures in Newcastle upon Tyne, near VRAI’s UK hub in Gateshead.
VRAI currently counts seven staff at its Dublin headquarters, with a recently launched UK branch in the North-East of England serving as home to four full-time staff – with ten more staff due in the coming year.
“This investment will allow us to help scale up offshore wind energy, which is critical to society’s plans to transition away from fossil fuel dependence,” O’Connor said. “Our products help ensure our military personnel have the best training and awareness in the face of more complex operational environments at a lower cost and with a lower carbon footprint.”
