Future Says S5E16 Recap: How AI and VR are Transforming Heavy Industry

Some of the world's most crucial industries are also some of the most dangerous. This includes the construction, mining, and forestry industries - the latter being the most dangerous civilian occupation in terms of fatality rate as of 2022 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These industries are also highly specialized, with workers often operating complex heavy equipment in dangerous, unpredictable environments. Unfortunately, these industries are facing serious labor shortages. Most of these industries' current workforces are set to retire in the coming years, and they're not drawing enough new workers to fill in these soon-to-be-vacant positions. That means companies may have to do two key things: do more with less, and find new ways to attract workers put off by the dangerous work.

Helping companies achieve these things is the goal of Amogha Srirangarajan, CEO and founder of Carbon Origins, the latest guest in Future Says season five. According to its website, Carbon Origins' goal is to "pioneer a new era of heavy equipment operation by combining human expertise with artificial intelligence." And more succinctly, in Srirangarajan's words, the company wants to "make robots commonplace."

Reshaping Heavy Industry with AI

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Carbon Origins and their technology allows heavy equipment to be remotely operated using a virtual reality (VR) headset and automated to do repetitive tasks. This means that workers no longer need to be physically present in the cab of a bulldozer or backhoe - they can operate these machines from anywhere. What Carbon Origins wants to do, in Srirangarajan's vision, is to get human workers out of harm's way via artificial intelligence (AI) and VR. "People only have one shot at life," he says. "The big vision is to see robots in every home; in the workforce tackling the boring, dirty, dangerous jobs people don't want to do; and to unlock a future where every person alive has a meaningful, exciting job."

He and Carbon Origins' small team of experts - including members who have worked on NASA's Perseverance rover and developed satellite constellations for weather prediction - do this by outfitting pieces of heavy equipment with what they call "upfit kits." These kits are roughly the size of a standard moving box and are universal, meaning they're machine and OEM agnostic. Once installed and connected to a machine, operators can use that machine from anywhere in the world. "All they need is a VR headset and they're getting 360-degree visuals - such as audio and sensor data - overlaid around them," Srirangarajan says. "It's kind of like they're Tony Stark from Iron Man. They're able to see things that they're not even able to see in the cabin." Srirangarajan says that this installation process is quick and easy, taking less than a day to complete.

But Carbon Origins' technology doesn't end there. If machine operation is "phase one," then AI automation and machine learning is "phase two." That's because while the operators are doing their tasks, they're simultaneously informing AI models that will soon be able to tackle the task's easier, more repetitive aspects, such as drilling holes or moving dirt. Best of all, once these AI models have proven they can perform these tasks under supervision, other machines equipped with Carbon Origins technology can coordinate and handle these tasks autonomously. In other words, the technology creates a semi-autonomous fleet that operators can oversee and manage, rather than being able to use only one machine at a time.

Using VR and AI to Solve Heavy Industry Labor Challenges

Srirangarajan believes this is crucial for organizations in Carbon Origins' four key industries: construction, mining, forestry, and a collection of other hazardous jobs like firefighting, hazardous material handling, etc. "The way I see it, Carbon Origins is at the intersection of four major [technological] revolutions: robotics, AI, VR, and work from home," he said. "[We are] allowing teams and organizations to use their most experienced operator(s) in new and unique ways. That means you can have an operator with 10-plus years of experience who can now work from home operating machines across multiple job sites. In other words, our goal is to help these operators go from playing instruments to conducting the orchestra."

With this approach, Srirangarajan believes Carbon Origins can help employers in dangerous industries solve those two crucial challenges: improving productivity with fewer workers, and attracting new workers - even people who wouldn't otherwise be interested in doing this type of work. Srirangarajan also says that, since this technology allows people to work at home in VR, it opens new job opportunities in these industries for people facing physical limitations, such as those stemming from injuries or disability, when it may have otherwise been out of the question.

Shooting for the Moon

And where does Srirangarajan eventually want to see Carbon Origins succeed? The place he was obsessed with as a kid: the moon. "We want to be on the moon," he says. "We want our machines helping build the infrastructure needed for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization."

In the meantime, there are still a few obstacles to overcome, but he's not too worried about them in the long run. For example, he thinks VR headset technology will improve significantly in the coming years, which will allay concerns about the headsets' current cumbersome nature that can turn some people away from embracing them. "You have a small group of people who will never put on a VR headset and work these machines, and that's ok. But a significant portion of the people that we've showed the tech to, within the first five minutes, they're sold," he says. In all, he believes the future of VR technology will eventually look something like regular sunglasses. "I really do think we're in the 'brick phone era' of VR headsets right now, and we'll look back at them and chuckle like how we do with old cell phones."

Who knows - maybe someday, someone you know will be sitting in their living room chair, looking through their glasses to help construct the world's first permanent outpost on the moon. Srirangarajan and Carbon Origins would like to be the driving force behind it all.

Click here to listen to the full episode with Carbon Origins' Amogha Srirangarajan. To check out the rest of Future Says season five, visit https://altair.com/future-says. And be sure to subscribe to Future Says on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music/Audible, YouTube Music, and Podcast Addict.

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