AugmenTech: The Usability Evaluation of an AR System for Maintenance in Industry

Abstract

Maintenance tasks are common operations in manufacturing environments. However, it is becoming increasingly challenging for companies to recruit personnel with adequate skills and tacit knowledge to perform them. This paper proposes the use of augmented reality (AR) as a solution to provide contextually relevant guidance as a method to upskill a user performing a task. However, implementing a disruptive tool such as AR into the workforce requires considerations for acceptability and compliance amongst employees. AugmenTech is a proposed AR guidance application which was designed and tested with a strong focus on usability. Due to issues with the HoloLens native input modalities in the application area, a tactile input module has been designed and integrated with the system. A mock-up bearing replacement maintenance procedure, based on a real-world use case provided by a local manufacturer, has been designed as a platform for evaluation. Using this task and AugmenTech a between-subjects experiment was conducted, comparing the system with a traditional paper documentation approach. Overall workload, quantified using the NASA-TLX, was similar when using AR. Likewise, the use of AR also had minimal effect on time needed to complete the task. The usability of AugmenTech has been quantified, scoring highly, (M = 79.5, SD = 16.13), using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire.