Assembly and maintenance by means of augmented reality
The assembly and maintenance of industrial machines is demanding. Fraunhofer IGD is developing an assistance system that facilitates such processes. At Hannover Messe Industrie 2016, the researchers will show how this works with augmented reality and networking.
"With social augmented reality, we offer dynamic work instructions in AR, which can be supplemented with your own notes, videos or markers," says Professor Bodo Urban, from Fraunhofer IGD.
Specialists in mechanical and plant engineering work on different machines every day. However, assembly and maintenance are becoming increasingly demanding in the course of Industry 4.0. That's why solutions that support the actual worker are in demand.
Here, Fraunhofer IGD relies on social augmented reality. Augmented reality (AR) refers to the overlaying of a camera image of reality - for example on a smartphone or tablet - with digital information. This makes it possible to look into the interior of machines and thus view every single action at the right position. In Fraunhofer IGD's approach, this augmented reality is supplemented with social functions.
The idea is that workers can not only view their work steps virtually, but also add new information to them for colleagues. "While working, good ideas for improvement may arise that you want to share with your colleagues right away. Or maintenance activities should be documented," explains Professor Bodo Urban, from Fraunhofer IGD.
"With social augmented reality, we offer dynamic work instructions in AR that can be supplemented with your own notes, videos or markups."
Modern work instructions
The work instructions are either created manually or generated automatically from the existing assembly and maintenance knowledge of the assistance system. If an employee wants to create instructions manually, this can be done very easily with a WYSIWYG editor. Based on modular 3D models, the information to be displayed can be very easily defined by fading in and out, highlighting in color, animating objects and integrating text, images and videos.
Social Augmented Reality will be presented together with other assistance systems of Fraunhofer IGD from April 25 to 29 at the Hannover Messe in Hall 7 at the Fraunhofer booth "Simulation" (E11).
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