According to the assembly task model proposed by
Stork and Schubö (2010)
, the assembly task is divided into commissioning and joining subtasks. Each subtask includes two sequential stages, namely, perception and response selection, and action. This division enables a convenient discussion of the influences of Augmented reality (AR) assistance on operators during different stages of an assembly task. Research results can provide a basis for the further analysis of the influence mechanism of AR assistance on an assembly task. This study is composed of three experiments. Experiment 1 explores the influences of AR assistance on the performance of the overall assembly task and the commissioning and joining subtasks. Combining a variation of task complexities, Experiments 2 and 3 discuss the influences of AR assistance on the different stages of the commissioning and joining subtasks. We found that AR assistance can shorten the time of the overall assembly task and subtasks (commissioning and joining) and reduce mistakes during these tasks. Moreover, AR assistance can decrease cognitive load in the commissioning subtask, but it increases cognitive load in the joining task with low complexity. In the perception and response selection stage of the commissioning and joining subtasks, AR assistance can shorten the time for users to recognize the target part and understand the assembly relation. This advantage is extremely significant for the high-complexity task. In the action stage of two subtasks, AR assistance can shorten the time for users to capture parts, but it prolongs the time for users to build parts.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.