Augmented Reality for Machine Monitoring in Industrial Manufacturing: A Media Comparison in Terms of Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Satisfaction

Usability is a key factor for successfully integrating new technology to aid an operator in production. It is measured using three metrics: efficiency (productivity), effectiveness (quality), and user satisfaction. One prominent technology for operator support is augmented reality (AR), which is mostly handheld or head-mounted. A human-centered approach is required to align the AR integration with the operator’s capabilities. The underlying use case in this study is an energy dashboard visualized using AR and non-AR media, namely, a monitor, tablet, and HoloLens. The resulting media applications were evaluated for usability in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction in the within-study experiments by 16 participants. Overall, the results showed increased efficiency and satisfaction for traditional-monitor users and increased effectiveness for tablet users. Despite the participants’ lack of experience with AR, the AR applications performed comparably to the monitor and even slightly better in some aspects. With the ongoing development of AR software and hardware, AR can become increasingly useful for machine monitoring in production. However, to use AR for more comprehensive tasks, its strengths and weaknesses must be considered.