Abstract
Nowadays the market is becoming increasingly competitive, factories are required not only to enhance the product quality but also to reduce manufacturing and maintenance times. In an industrial context, modern factories are composed by many automated systems, such as industrial robots, which can perform different tasks. Although industrial robots are becoming more powerful and efficient, human workers are still required to accomplish different operations, such as training and maintenance procedures. The proposed research aims to assess a remote interaction system in an industrial training collaborative mixed-reality (CMR) environment. A remote expert user is capable of explaining a training procedure to an unskilled local user. Remote and local users interact using different interaction systems: the remote operator gives assistance using an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) device, whereas the local user interacts using a wearable Augmented Reality (AR) device. A comparison between an interaction based on the presence of a virtual human and one based on the use of abstract icons is proposed. In the first case, a virtual 3D representation of the remote technician is shown to the local user by using AR: the remote technician can pinpoint the components involved in the training procedure and the local user can visualize the instructions through some animations of the virtual avatar. In the second case, the local user cannot see a 3D representation of the remote technician; on the other hand, different 3D models, such as animated icons, are displayed to the local operator through AR depending on the component pinpointed by the remote technician in the virtual environment. Each 3D icon should suggest to the local user which component has to be manipulated at the current step of the procedure. Preliminary results suggest that the interface that requires less resources to be developed and managed should be preferred. Although in no audio condition the virtual avatar may improve the sense of presence of the remote technician, the use of abstract metaphors seems to be of primary importance to successfully complete an industrial task.
Highlights
Technology improvements are bringing new exciting opportunities to the industry domain
The M values of the abstract interfaces are marginally superior to the ones of the avatar interface
The null hypothesis proposed in this work is the same for all the statements and it can be expressed as follows: “The virtual avatarbased interface outperforms the abstract metaphor-based one.”
Summary
Technology improvements are bringing new exciting opportunities to the industry domain. Among the different available technologies and approaches, collaborative mixedreality (CMR) systems can represent a reliable and innovative strategy to face the change of the fourth industrial revolution. Using CMR tools, workers can benefit of the VR contents without losing the contact with the real world and without changing the way they work. The origin of these systems can be found in the first AR prototype proposed by Sutherland (1968). Since operators should be trained using real objects in the real environment, the system proposed in this work will be evaluated from the AR point of view, comparing two different approaches, one based on the use of abstract virtual metaphors and one based on the presence of a virtual human avatar.
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