AppsBow to lead one of the world’s largest VR training projects with Grupa Azoty Polyolefins

7 billion PLN (1.8B $) worth industrial project Grupa Azoty Polyolefins S.A. in Poland started cooperation with AppsBow to implement vReact solution for virtual reality training of operators.

Thanks to this system, we will be able to systematically take care of the high level of preparation of our employees for the implementation of tasks. vReact allows not only to educate new employees but also to improve the competencies of experienced staff. – said Maciej Lis, director of the Production Department.

vReact is a high-fidelity training environment dedicated to the industrial sector where each operator can train daily procedures and emergency events. Grupa Azoty Polyolefins S.A. is one of the biggest investments projects of this kind in Europe, consequently AppsBow by providing vReact solutions creates one of the biggest virtual reality training environments for the industrial sector in the world.

The photos used in the post come from the resources of Grupa Azoty Polyolefins S.A.

VR training pilot accomplished in Grupa Azoty PULAWY

On 16th of July 2021 in Grupa Azoty PUŁAWY, during a press conference, the result VR training pilot project was officially presented. The success was acclaimed by the President of the Board Tomasz Hryniewicz.

The pilot project included preparation of one-to-one digital twins of two major plants: 15,000 metric tonne liquid ammonia storage (with compressor house, refrigerating unit and loading/unloading facilities) and an ammonia synthesis plant.

For each plant several training scenarios were programmed, related to reaction in emergency situations for both new and experienced personnel.

The simulation enables training various procedures in a completely safe way to eliminate events, which in the real world could jeopardize the safety of the personnel, says Grupa Azoty PULAWY’s President.

The project is to be continued and extended to include other plants of Grupa Azoty PUŁAWY and a multitude of training scenarios.

vReact – virtually the best industrial training

We decided to change the name of our 3D | VR training software from VTE (Virtual Training Environment) to vReact.

We believe that with the new name our industrial training for field operation will gain easier recognition and be more memorable for our clients. 

As always, everything what the best from our former system stays the same but still, day by day we are increasing quality of our product to provide the best industrial training in the virtual world. 

AppsBow become a PIPC member

Polish Chamber of Chemical Industry (PIPC) is one of the most dynamically operating industrial societies in Poland.

Thanks to the current achievement of AppsBow and its focus only on industrial companies, mostly from the chemical market, AppsBow has a pleasure to become a remember of PIPC. 

PIPC, we are very happy that from now on we will continue our journey with you.

Meet AL – virtual assistant

Meet AL – a virtual assistant for vReact industrial training in 3D | VR world. 

Dents and scratches on its body prove his hands-on experience with various plants. Now he is more than ready to help you with preparing your own crew to work in industrial plants and facilities. 

Meet our VR training assistant. With him, we are expanding our standard three training stages by an additional, fourth, assisted stage. Virtual assistant in our VR training software helps just before the exam stage.

Thanks to gathering big data and using machine learning to process the vast amount of information we will be able to automatically help each trainee on the fly during his training. 

Our virtual assistant starts working at the beginning on a gasoline hydrodesulfurization plant for Grupa LOTOS, ammonia synthesis for Grupa Azoty, and with a VF4 CNC machine for Haas Automation, Inc.

Currently, we have marked the model MR-JR-HZ in honor of three Polish scientists that broke the Enigma machine code but its name is AL – initials of Ada Lovelace. By that, we want to honor Miss Lovelace for bringing the first computer program long before computers were even invented. 

AppsBow become official member Nvidia Inception Program

Working with AI algorithms and image and data recognition from now on will be supported directly from NVIDIA. 

AppsBow is currently in process of developing a VR assistant fully supported by AI algorithms. Our assistant will be able to help users acquire knowledge during the learning process in vReact training software. 

Our second case is image and data recognition. Cooperation with Nvidia will help AppsBow build fully automatic solutions to recreate digital twins for industrial facilities as optimized poly-objects. Those kinds of objects are light and can easily be prone to adding interactive features for specialistic industrial training. 

Thanks to big support and possibilities with Nvidia, AppsBow have the opportunity to provide for clients new, fast, and quality services in the virtual world of training.

Cooperation with Grupa Azoty under KPT acceleration

We are happy to announce that thanks to the KPT ScaleUp acceleration programme we managed to start a wider cooperation with Grupa Azoty – one of the leading players in the European fertilizer and chemical markets.

Within the framework of the programme, we will be providing VR Training for field operators for two types of chemical plants: Liquid Ammonia Storage Tank and Ammonia Synthesis Section. In our vReact system we will implement a number of daily procedures as well emergency events (vReact Emergency).

Implementing high-fidelity virtual reality training for such complex and demanding facilities will help lower the risk of possible production downtime. It will also help with faster and more effective training of both current and new field operators.

Currently, we started gathering reference materials for Ammonia Synthesis Section and Liquid Ammonia Storage facillities. Gathering necessary materials is the first step to recreate an industrial plant in the virtual environment and understand the exact need for training solutions. Within a few months, we will be able to present the results of our work.

We would like to thank Grupa Azoty and KPT for choosing AppsBow and recognizing us with vReact as the best VR solution provider for the highly advanced industrial market.

Laser scanning of industrial facilities and machines

Recently we have been able to test our new scanning equipment. Thanks to Faro Technologies we were able to see in action the Faro Focus S350 – laser scanner.

We have chosen FARO Focus Laser Scanners due to the high accuracy of the scans and the possibility to work in almost any environment thanks to the protection from dirt, dust, fog, rain, and heat/cold.

Capturing the measurements of large objects or industrial plants as well as very complex small objects or equipment can be created as accurate, complete, and photorealistic 3D images of any environment or object in just a few minutes.

Laser scanning will help us to shorten the time needed to recreate the industrial facilities and individual machines in a 3D environment for further use in our training system – vReact, 3D | VR training for field operators.

Worth mentioning is that in our vReact – VR training solution we do not use scans directly. The cloud of points provided by the scanner is used by us as a reference to build a highly optimized 3D model of industrial plants, machinery or equipment. Optimizations let us provide a solution that can run on most of the current-gen computers. Thanks to that our business partners are not forced to buy expensive work stations to run our vReact software.

Conference PIPC “Chemistry 4.0”

On November 20-21 2019, together with PROZAP, the engineering company of Grupa Azoty Puławy, we were participating in the conference “Chemistry 4.0 – technology in the industry” – organized by the Polish Chamber of the Chemical Industry (Projekt Chemia 4.0, Polska Izba Przemysłu Chemicznego – PIPC).

The subject of the conference sessions was industry 4.0 and related innovations which are no longer a trend of the distant future. For many companies, they are everyday activities and constitute one of the key elements of their strategic development. The chemical sector is one of the most intensively using modern solutions, however, it still faces numerous challenges related to their implementation.

During the conference, our CEO Sebastian Zielinski along with Bartosz Koletka of PROZAP was asked to give a lecture on innovation which involves use of virtual reality for training in industrial plants, including a few examples of actual applications made for companies like Grupa Lotos, Grupa Azoty, Agrochem and Haas. 

As part of the keynote, we presented the possibilities of the Virtual Training Environment (VTE) system in supporting the traditional training and the possibility of using virtual training to prepare for emergency situations (VTE TEE). We pointed out that virtual reality training is safe and can greatly accelerate the learning process of employees to prepare them for work. Even for the industrial plants or equipment which are not actually constructed, but exist as a 3D model.

After the keynote participants were able to test our VTE software on our booth where we enjoyed great interest in our VR technology.

vReact Demo Release 1.0

vReact Demo

We have great news. We have prepared a demo of our vReact that allows you to check out how virtual reality (VR) can work for you in the context of your company.

Our demo allows you to test four scenarios on two different industrial plants. We included four complete scenarios in vReact Demo 1.0. Also, you are not obligated to use VR helmet for training. You can operate the application with a mouse, keyboard, and TV/monitor. Using VR goggles like Oculus Rift/Quest is optional but possible.

To use vReact software you need only a mid-level PC with Windows 10 onboard and access to the Internet. The exact specification can be found in the vReact Demo request form.

We believe that in our demo we managed to include everything that is needed to help you get a better understanding of how vReact software can assist you with managing trainings and ultimately improve your business.

Scenarios included in the demo:

Refinery plant (one section)

  • Check pump manometer condition.
  • Check liquid level indicator condition.

Liquid fertilizer storage and handling plant

  • Stopping uncontrolled leakage.
  • Loading procedure of a tanker truck. 
If you wish to see more than is currently included in our demo feel free to schedule a meeting with us (online/offline) for a full presentation with a wider range of industrial plants, machinery, or equipment.