ARCoA: Using the AR-Assisted Cooperative Assembly System to Visualize Key Information about the Occluded Partner

Abstract

During component assembly, some operations must be completed by two or more workers due to the size or assembly mode. For instance, in manual riveting, two workers are positioned on either side of a steel plate, which blocks the view. Traditional collaborative approaches limit assembly efficiency and is difficult to ensure accurate and rapid interaction between workers. In this study, we developed an AR-Assisted Cooperative Assembly System (ARCoA) to address the issue. ARCoA allows users to view their partner’s key information that is occluded, including tools, gestures, orientations, and shared markers. Besides, we presented a user experiment that compared this method with the traditional approach. The results indicated that the new system could significantly improve assembly efficiency, system availability, and sense of social presence. Moreover, most users we surveyed preferred ARCoA. In the future, we will incorporate more functions and improve the accuracy of the system to solve complex multi-person collaborative problems.