Enhancing inspection accuracy with remote visual inspection

TeamViewer’s remote visual inspection solutions are transforming quality control with cutting-edge AR and real-time collaboration.

Illustration showing remote visual inspection in field service

New immersive and remote support technologies—including augmented reality (AR)—are helping to extend what’s possible with non-destructive and visual inspection. This opens up new potential uses for manufacturing, industrial, and engineering quality control teams.

Discover what this new advancement of remote visual inspection software could mean for your business and how TeamViewer’s range of inspect-by-vision and see-what-I-see capabilities can enhance your operations with safer, more accurate, and more cost-effective quality control processes. TeamViewer’s remote visual inspection (RVI) solutions enhance efficiency, reduce downtime, and improve safety for quality control teams in manufacturing, engineering, and industrial environments.

Understanding remote visual inspection (RVI) for industrial use

Standard RVI is a form of non-destructive and visual inspection. RVI enables real-time inspections of complex machinery, pipelines, and industrial components without the need for physical access. This reduces downtime, enhances worker safety, and ensures compliance with regulatory standards.

For decades, RVI has been a critical tool for industries requiring non-invasive inspections. Today, augmented reality (AR) enhances these capabilities by displaying real-time data and instructions directly within the user’s field of view, improving efficiency and accuracy. This works by overlaying digital information onto a user’s field of vision. 

TeamViewer’s AR-powered RVI solutions integrate real-time remote communication, allowing inspectors to collaborate instantly with off-site experts, annotate live feeds, and ensure inspections are completed with precision.

How remote visual inspection (RVI) reduces costs and improves safety

Here’s an overview of how today’s various automated visual inspection systems work.

How it works:

  • Standard RVI is often used to inspect hard-to-reach or hazardous areas, such as the inner components of technical infrastructure, pipelines, and tunnels.
  • Your choice of RVI device depends on the type of inspection you need to carry out. Examples include borescopes and fiberscopes for engines and confined spaces, robotic crawlers for pipelines and tunnels, and drones for aerial inspections.
  • Once your RVI device is deployed, it streams live inspection footage to on-the-ground or remotely-based engineers.
  • More advanced remote visual inspection tools have AI-based computer vision and machine learning capabilities. These allow the RVI solution to automatically detect and flag anomalies and faults, such as defective or damaged machinery in the production line.

How it works:

  • Automated visual inspection solutions using industrial AR can improve quality control by overlaying digital information onto real-world environments.
  • You can create detailed steps, guidance, and instructions for every inspection and maintenance process.
  • Technicians can access this information hands-free through smart glasses (or alternatively using a tablet) while conducting the actual inspection.
  • Integrating checklists and digitalized workflows into your processes can help ensure that the technician completes all required steps for any quality control or maintenance inspection.

How it’s used:

One of the reasons why TeamViewer’s inspect-by-vision solution, Frontline Inspect, is so popular is its flexibility.

 

You can use inspect-by-vision to streamline any human-based inspection, quality control, or maintenance activity. It’s already being put to work in industries like manufacturing, automotive and aircraft inspection, pharma, energy, and engineering.

How it works:

  • See-what-I-see technology is a very useful addition to your inspection toolkit when you need a second expert opinion or when an inspector has scattered locations to manage
  • It uses a combination of live video collaboration and remote assistance tools powered by AR
  • Let’s say during a quality control check, an on-site technician encounters an issue they’re unsure about. They use TeamViewer Frontline Assist to connect with a remote expert using their smartphone, tablet, or smart glasses.
  • The remote expert sees a live video feed of the technician’s environment, including a detailed view of the issue in question
  • The expert can use AR features, such as diagrams and annotations, and provide real-time audio instructions to diagnose the problem and advise on the next steps

How it’s used:

Similarly to inspect-by-vision, you can use see-what-I-see technology to enhance almost any human-based inspection or maintenance process. With TeamViewer Frontline Inspect, you get AR-guided inspection and see-what-I-see capabilities in a single solution.

How it’s used:

Similarly to inspect-by-vision, you can use see-what-I-see technology to enhance almost any human-based inspection or maintenance process. With TeamViewer Frontline Inspect, you get AR-guided inspection and see-what-I-see capabilities in a single solution.

Key advantages of remote visual inspection (RVI) for industrial applications

Rapid task completion with minimal disruption

Remote visual inspection services and software allow technical teams to do the job with as little disruption as possible to critical industrial operations. For example, a borescope or endoscope can provide live footage of an engine’s inner workings without dismantling (potentially damaging) it. With crawler systems, you can inspect tunnels and exhaust ducts without shutting down operations.

Industrial AR extends this even further. Inspectors get instant, hands-free access to precisely the information they need, including digital checklists and step-by-step workflows. Instead of wasting time traveling from site to site, remote-based experts can connect to any location for rapid troubleshooting.

Improving worker safety

The beauty of this technology lies in the ability to send it into areas that are unsuitable for people.

Industrial AR allows you to enhance safety and compliance even further. For example, while a technician operates a remote-controlled crawler, an AR RVI system with thermal imaging integration can prevent injury by making overheated components visible to the worker. So, no safety or compliance aspect is accidentally overlooked. Inspection data can also be automatically logged and stored for audit purposes.

Greater precision and reliability

The right combination of remote visual inspection services and industrial AR capabilities can significantly reduce the risk of undetected faults and anomalies.

Remotely operated camera units give you a precise view of the item you’re inspecting. AR workflows help ensure no aspect of the inspection process is overlooked. Remote connectivity means you can collaborate with experts in other locations if needed.

Overcoming key challenges in visual inspection

Problem: RVI cameras can be cropped, mishandled, or improperly inserted, leading to breakage. Software bugs, poor configuration, or weak network signals can also affect their performance.

Solution: Using AR to guide employees while using RVI  cameras can reduce the risk of accidental damage. Remote device management and patching also allow you to monitor software-related glitches.

Problem: Inspectors may misidentify defects or skip critical steps in inspection checklists.

Solution: AR-guided digital checklists can help ensure step-by-step process adherence. Machine vision technology can assist with image analysis, reducing the chances of defects being missed.

Problem: Manual data entry can lead to missing or incomplete inspection or quality control reports, increasing the risk of regulatory non-compliance.

Solution: You can integrate your AR-guided digital checklists with automated inspection logging —for example, via your enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. This way, your inspection records are always complete, properly logged, and verifiable. For many processes, additional verification is required; this can be achieved remotely via video calls.

Problem: Specialist RVI equipment (e.g., borescopes and crawlers) can be expensive to purchase, maintain, and repair.

Solution: Consider adopting predictive maintenance to avoid unnecessary repairs and extend the lifespan of your equipment. TeamViewer offers 360° remote connectivity for all devices, device monitoring capabilities, and maintenance support.

Optimizing manufacturing inspections with remote visual inspection (RVI) solutions

With customers like Airbus, Ford Motor Company, and EnviroFalk, TeamViewer is helping to redefine inspection and quality control in some of the most innovative and tightly regulated manufacturing and industrial environments worldwide. Here’s a closer look at what’s possible.

Customer success: Airbus

Aerospace

Airbus Helicopters Inc. needed a simpler, streamlined, paperless approach to maintenance inspection: A process that sometimes involved documenting around 300 parts per gearbox.

With clear documentation, voice activation, and high resolution, TeamViewer Frontline Inspect has helped Airbus Helicopters achieve 40% faster inspections with zero manual input errors.

Energy and utilities

EnviroFalk is a world leader in designing water treatment systems. Because each system has its particular requirements, a tailored approach to inspection and maintenance is essential.

Thanks to TeamViewer Frontline’s digital support system, field technicians can now access expert input on demand, significantly reducing error rates.

Automotive

Ford Motor Company has developed a personalized approach to maintenance testing, diagnostics, and troubleshooting, where dealership technicians can contact field service engineers (FSEs) for assistance.

TeamViewer’s see-what-I-see AR technology has significantly strengthened this relationship, enabling technicians to get the right type of input when needed.

How TeamViewer enhances remote visual inspection (RVI) capabilities

TeamViewer Frontline helps make, paperless, hands-free, non-destructive inspection a reality.

Create guided workflows to make sure no checks are missed. Allow in-field technicians to connect instantly with experts. Maintain your specialist RVI equipment through remote maintenance and support. TeamViewer delivers all of this through a single platform.

Frontline Inspect

With Frontline Inspect, you can say goodbye to complex inspection manuals and place essential diagnostic and troubleshooting information directly in your inspector’s field of vision.

The solution is easy to use, which means you can assemble your workflows and checklists for even the most complex inspection and quality control processes without needing any additional technological knowledge.

Frontline Assist

Collaborative remote visual inspection is often the most effective. Especially when technicians in the field can communicate seamlessly with remote-based experts and address issues together.

TeamViewer Frontline Assist makes this possible, allowing quality control teams, technicians, and partners to communicate from anywhere through real-time video, chat, 3D annotations, file downloads, and much more.

Remote maintenance and support

TeamViewer equips you with augmented reality visual inspection capabilities alongside a wide range of RVI fiberscopes, crawlers, drones, and other devices. The solution also provides remote device management and monitoring capabilities. In short, it provides everything you need to maintain, manage, and secure your connected RVI equipment.

Why leading enterprises choose TeamViewer for RVI

Ease of adoption

TeamViewer’s AR solutions are designed to be easy to use and scale. With intuitive dashboards and no-code inspection workflow creation, you can quickly digitalize and enhance your inspection processes. Our enterprise AR team is on hand to help you get up and running quickly.

Integration and flexibility

TeamViewer’s AR-guided inspection solutions are compatible with your choice of wearable, portable, or mobile devices, so you’re free to choose your preferred type of hardware. Ease of integration and interoperability means you can build on your existing RVI processes and integrate TeamViewer to work seamlessly with existing software systems.

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