Augmented Reality System for Generating Operation Program of Automobile Assembly System

Abstract

In recent years, the computer graphic technology has been growing dramatically with computer industry growth. In this exigent situation, the research of VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) technology which describe realistic scenes is performing actively (Daniel et al., 2007; Stephen et al., 2008; Bimber et al., 2008; Ong et al., 2003). Moreover, not only computer science companies but also many manufacturing companies have been studying about VR technology, because the global market requires a variety of product and shorter life cycle to fulfill the diverse demands of customers to survive in the turbulent and competitive market. In the case of VR based digital manufacturing technologies, it can be used to analyze static and dynamic system behavior at all stages of manufacturing system configuration as an advantage (Gunter et al., 2005; Park et al., 2008; Kim et al., 2008; Park et al., 2007; Park et al., 2006). To put it the other way around, the modeling work requires much expenses and efforts, because the whole system has to be modeled. Some manufacturing companies which realize the weaknesses of VR based digital manufacturing technologies have been studying AR technology. AR means that the execution or planning ability of a real world is increased by the superimposition of virtual object on it. Basically, Augmented Reality is configured with three requisites as a real environment, markers and virtual objects (Fig. 1). The ambitious goal of AR is to create the sensation that virtual objects are present in the real world. To achieve the effect, software combines VR elements with the real world. Obviously, AR is most effective when virtual elements are added in real time. Because of this, AR commonly involves augmenting 2D or 3D objects to a real-time digital video image (Stephen et al., 2008). AR technology can remarkably reduce the modeling work, because it uses the real environment to design and to plan manufacturing systems (Lee et al., 2008; Park et al., 2008). AR technology is consisted basically of three modules which are image processing, tracking and rendering. The image processing module has to support the various types of the image data and can process the lots of image data. The image processing module sends the obtained image data to the tracking module. And the rendering module performs image