ARVIKA - Augmented Reality for Development, Production and Service

Augmented Reality (AR) is a form of human-machine interaction where information is presented in the field of view of an individual e.g. through a head mounted display, thus augmenting his or her perception of reality. This occurs in a context-sensitive manner, i.e. in accordance with and derived from the observed object, such as a part, tool or machine, or his or her location. In this way, the real-world field of view of a skilled worker, technician or design engineer is augmented with superimposed notes to present information that is relevant to this individual. ARVIKA develops this technology or applications in the fields of design, production, and service in the automotive and aerospace industries, for power and processing plants and for machine tools and production machinery. This technology offers special dimensions for mid-sized businesses that can leverage an improved diagnostic and maintenance competence to increase their flexibility and efficiency, thereby strengthening their global competitive position. ARVIKA /1/ is primarily designed to implement an Augmented Reality system for mobile use in industrial applications. This article presents the results that have been achieved after a project duration of almost four years: A basic system for Augmented Reality systems was developed based on a specially designed software architecture. About 30 application-specific prototypes have been created on this basis and have been evaluated in usability tests. The solutions that can be demonstrated today indicate very good, worldwide acknowledged results of the project in terms of the base technologies, such as Augmented Reality, interaction as well as AR-oriented information delivery and workflow, but they also show the challenges for major further developments. These further developments need to focus on AR authoring tools and AR-compatible information structures, tracking methods that doesn’t require to change the environment and wearable and personalizable AR devices that make it possible to use AR not only in niche applications but also in mainstream industrial applications. ARVIKA is the world’s largest project for the use of Augmented Reality in industrial application and, thanks to numerous inventions, has been exemplary in the protection of intellectual property for the German scientific community and the industry. 1 Project Overview and Vision 1.1 General situation and project overview Augmented Reality is an innovative form of human-machine interaction where information is presented in the field of view of a user e. g. through a head mounted display. This occurs in a context-sensitive manner, i.e. in accordance with and derived from the observed object, such as a part or an assembly environment. In this case, Augmented Reality replaces the traditional assembly manual and provides additional updated information that are relevant to the process, such as pressure, temperature, rpm, etc. In addition to this situation-sensitive interaction, the use of computers that can be worn on the body enables AR applications that require a high degree of mobility as well as process, measuring or simulation data to support the workflow. Up to now, AR has only been a subject of individual research projects and a small number of application-specific industrial projects on a global scale /5/ /6/. The current state of the art and the available appliances in 2003 only permit a niche-oriented application of the technology. However, AR enables a new, innovative form of human-machine interaction that not only places the individual in the center of the industrial workflow but also offers a high potential for process and quality improvements in production and process workflows. While Virtual Reality, especially in the development phases of a product, supports the design and improvement of products without any real environment, Augmented Reality focuses on the real product and the real environment and augments this reality in a situation-sensitive manner with information right attached to the object that can enable or facilitate the design, manufacture or maintenance of an industrial product. This is the reason why the German ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) sponsors the ARVIKA pilot project to support the development of Augmented Reality technologies that assist workflows in design, production, and maintenance operations for complex technical products and plants, both in a user-centric and application-driven manner. Figure 1: ARVIKA project structure The primary application-specific topics of ARVIKA (see Figure 1) aim at testing Augmented Reality in the development, production and service of a product in the field or the service of the machines and systems that are required for production. More specifically, the planned scope of the project will focus on automotive and aircraft equipment in the field of design, on automotive and aircraft assembly in the field of production, and on power and process plants, the areas of automotive and aircraft as well as the required production/manufacturing machine tools and machines in the field of service. This will cover the major industrial applications for AR, eliminate duplicate development efforts and achieve the necessary application depth to verify this innovative technology. These main topics are embedded in a user-centric system design that accompanies the project in all phases using ergonomic methods with respect to ergonomic principles, Usability Engineering and system-ergonomic investigations. The basis for all development work in the various fields of application are the Augmented Reality Base technologies that support high-end / power applications in design in the same way as the low-end use of the technology as a belt-mounted appliance by a skilled worker in real-world production or service environments. They provide the AR modules, the components for information provision and the AR-compatible types of interaction. 1.2 Visions and results The vision of the project is the provision of user-centric stationary and mobile AR systems for industrial applications. The consortium partners have documented and published their visions, goals, and the status of the development in numerous publications, status meetings and at several ARVIKA forums in more than 30 application-oriented projects (as an example see: www.arvika.de/www/e/topic5/infoflyer.htm, www.arvika.de/www/e/topic2/presse.php). Several AR application visions and their results are explained in the examples below. Field of application: Design The comparison of test and calculation of the crash test scenario (Figure 2, VW) assists the calculation engineer with AR techniques in structural simulation. Figure 2: Example from the field of application "Design" Following the crash test, AR technology enables the immediate comparison of calculated results with the actual deformations of the crashed vehicle. The data are mostly graphic information (finite elements method grid) that is linked with results such as stress, strain, internal energy and can be enhanced with textual information. Figure 2 illustrates the vision as well as the actual results that were achieved in the project. The overlay of the simulation data on the crashed door immediate shows the deviations from the deformed door. Other scenarios cover the “Economic layout design in the aircraft cockpit” (DC, EADS), the “Flow visualization of aircraft passenger seats” (DC, Airbus) and the “Layout design and improvement of prototyping in automotive manufacturing” (Audi, BMW). Selected applications are supported by a miniaturized, personalized infrared tracking system (A.R.T.). Some of the mentioned examples will be put into productive service upon completion of the project, i.e. they will be integrated into the development processes of the participating industrial partners. Field of application: Production/Assembly Two key issues were developed and tested in the Production/Assembly field of application: the assembly of industrial products and the creation and commissioning support of production equipment by means of AR technology. An AR assembly process that has already become a “classic” was developed and tested for the production of cable harnesses for the Eurofighter. In this process, up to 60 different, highly complex cable harnesses are produced on cable boards with the dimensions of 1 x 6 m (Figure 3, EADS). The assembly technician retrieves the routing schedule from the workshop order management system in incremental steps according to his relative position to his location in front of the cable board. Via an AR headset (visual augmenting, recording of head movements, speech input/output), he is provided with the starting point as well as the routing direction of the cable. He can request situation-specific information via speech control. The evaluation with a large number of test persons based on the available AR headset yielded the result that the use of AR in this area of production is considered promising after a further optimization phase. Figure 3: Example from the field of application "Production" Other scenarios include “AR-assisted quality assurance along the production line” (VW), “Assembly of fresh water system” and “Connection of an electrical distribution panel” (Airbus), and “Assembly optimization in one-off and small batch production” (WZL/RWTHAachen). The building and commissioning support of production equipment by means of AR technology was impressively demonstrated in scenarios such as “Assembly of new production equipment” (Ford) and “AR-assisted factory and plant planning” (VW) and tested with commission engineers, also at separate geographic locations. The scenario “AR-assisted factory and plant planning” (Figure 4, VW) shows very impressively how limitations of virtual planning techniques are solved with AR. For example, the required computing power for comprehensive plant models, differences betw