Industrial Augmented Reality: Concepts and User Interface Designs for Augmented Reality Maintenance Worker Support Systems

Maintenance departments of producing companies in most industrial countries are facing challenges originating from an aging workforce, increasing product variety, and the pressure to increase productivity. We present the concepts and the user interface (UI) designs for two Augmented Reality (AR) applications, which help to tackle these issues. An AR Guidance System will allow new and unexperienced staff to perform medium to highly complex maintenance tasks, which they currently incapable to. The AR Remote Service System enables technicians at the machine to establish a voice/video stream with an internal or external expert. The video stream can be augmented with 3D models and drawings so that problems can be solved remotely and more efficiently. A qualitative assessment with maintenance managers and technicians from three producing companies rated the AR application concept as beneficial and the UI designs as very usable.