Augmented Reality for Operators in Smart Manufacturing Environments: A Case Study Implementation

The fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, is gaining momentum globally and in various sectors. Promising smart and highly-connected digital and physical systems, the vision of Industry 4.0 relies on the effective integration of some key enabling technologies-amongst which is Augmented Reality (AR). AR is a digital medium that involves virtual objects and computer-generates elements that appear in one or more layers over the real-world environment. The integration of production data with customized AR experiences promises great benefits for operators in the manufacturing sector and beyond. This paper describes the case study implementation of an integrated AR experience for operators in a smart manufacturing environment. The case study uses a Microsoft Hololens II AR device, with Vuforia Studio software, to integrate an operator with the operation and control of a Fischertechnik Learning Factory 4.0 miniature manufacturing system. Within the case study, the implementation demonstrates an integrated AR experience capable of identifying components of the real manufacturing system using marker recognition and shape screening as well as visualizing multi-media data objects. Furthermore, an outlook of visualizing real-time IoT production data and sending operator commands via the AR system to affect the manufacturing system operation is given. In light of the case study results, the paper also discusses the possibilities and challenges for the deployment of AR in real manufacturing environments.