Design of an assistant system for industrial maintenance tasks and implementation of a prototype using augmented reality

Abstract

As the complexity of work tasks rises for maintenance workers in modern production facilities, new technologies will be required to support and integrate the service worker of tomorrow. This paper gives an insight into an ongoing research project examining the potential of smart glasses used as a component of assistant systems for workers performing maintenance tasks in an industry 4.0 context. A human centered design process is used to identify the needs of workers and to specify requirements for the assistant system being developed. Thereby, the maintenance of a CNC lathe is used as an example and assistant functions were developed for one specific maintenance task. The architecture of the assistant system proposed in this paper is based on an analysis of the work system including the tasks of the maintenance worker. Finally, the implementation of a first prototype, using state-of-the-art augmented reality smart glasses, is described.

Augmented reality in support of intelligent manufacturing – A systematic literature review

“…Pilot project Some papers presented work on prototypes at early stages without results of their performance (Jayaweera et al 2017;Kocisko et al 2017;Schlagowski et al 2017;Wolfartsberger et al 2017;Flatt et al 2015;Rodriguez et al 2015). As the developed prototypes had interesting features, those papers were added to the literature review despite them being not tested rigorously.…”

“…The move from a fixed maintenance schedule to an adaptive one based on realtime data can be supported by AR. The flexibility of maintenance workers can be increased by showing the right data at the right time for a certain maintenance task (Schlagowski et al 2017;Flatt et al 2015).…”

“…At the Fraunhofer Institute for Casting, Composite and Processing Technology in Augsburg, Germany, a Microsoft HoloLense based system is used to develop a human-centred assistance system for maintenance tasks of a CNC lathe (Schlagowski et al 2017). The currently published status of their research is a prototype test focusing on the assistant functions.…”

“…It is still restricted by technological challenges. Before conducting (long-term) studies in industrial settings, the weight of HMDs and the field of view was often criticised (Holm et al 2017;Schlagowski et al 2017;Makris et al 2016;Maly et al 2016;Mura et al 2016). Yet, ergonomics is not limited to the wear-ability of HMDs, but also on how ergonomic the user interface is.…”

Entwicklung eines Augmented Reality Assistenzsystems zur Unterstützung von Instandhaltungsaufgaben in der Produktion

“…Aufrechterhalten dieses Zielzustands nötig sind, wurden u.a. durch Selbstbeobachtung analysiert und in wiederkehrende Sinnabschnitte (Teilaufgaben) gruppiert (Schlagowski et al 2017). Das erhobene Wissen wurde dabei so strukturiert, dass wie bei der Ziele-Mittel-Analyse (meansends analysis, (Newell und Simon 1972)) nach der Durchführung einer oder mehrerer Teilaufgaben jeweils ein eindeutig nachvollziehbarer Zustand der Produktionsanlage vorherrscht, ein sog.…”