How to Make Augmented Reality a Tool for Railway Maintenance Operations: Operator 4.0 Perspective

Abstract

In the last few decades, several initiatives and approaches are set up to support maintenance procedures for the railway industry in adopting the principles of Industry 4.0. Contextualized maintenance technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) overlay can integrate virtual information on physical objects to improve decision-making and action-taking processes. Operators work in a dynamic working environment requiring both high adaptive capabilities and expert knowledge. There is a need to support the operators with tailor-based information that is customized and contextualized to their expertise and experience. It calls for AR tools and approaches that combine complex methodologies with high usability requirements. The development of these AR tools could benefit from a structured approach. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to propose an adaptive architectural framework aimed at shaping and structuring the process that provides operators with tailored support when using an AR tool. Case study research is applied within a revelatory railway industry setting. It was found that the framework ensures that self-explanatory AR systems can capture the knowledge of the operator, support the operator during maintenance activities, conduct failure analysis, provide problem-solving strategies, and improve learning capabilities. This study contributes to the necessity of having a human-centered approach for the successful adaption of AR technology tools for the railway industry.

Maintenance Performance in the Age of Industry 4.0: A Bibliometric Performance Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review

“…Examples of the use of AR include bus maintenance systems (e.g., [ 232 ]), power plant maintenance (e.g., [ 233 ]), railway systems (e.g., [ 234 ]), and military systems (e.g., [ 235 ]). The concept of a system for assisting diagnostic processes using AR technology was presented among others in works [ 236 , 237 ].…”

Augmented Reality in Maintenance—History and Perspectives

“…In 1968, Ivan Sutherland, an electronics engineer at Harvard University, created the first HMD, The Sword of Damocles. This device was able to convey visual effects, sounds, and smells to the user [8]. As computers at the time were quite limited, it was only possible to see wireframes in real time.…”

“…In general, augmented reality contributes to standardization as well as to friendlier and more efficient workflows through the use of contextualized and personalized information [8]. In areas such as maintenance, where all processes of learning, training, and communication imply investment, decreasing the down time of equipment can help to provide greater returns on direct financial investments.…”

Development and Usability Evaluation of Mobile Augmented Reality Contents for Railway Vehicle Maintenance Training: Air Compressor Case

“…Recently, most of the AR application cases for maintenance in the railway vehicle sector have been developed mainly on main mechanical equipment such as boogie and braking devices conducted by the research group of the National University of Transportation in Korea [23,24]. In the case of the air compressor conducted in this study, only some applications have been reported to manufacture industrial screw-type air compressors [25]. Therefore, this study aims to make it easy to use for train fleet maintenance by gradually converting important railway vehicle equipment, a collection of complex technologies such as mechanical engineering, electrical, communication, and electronic engineering, over several years to innovate existing manual-based maintenance methods in the railway industry.…”