Methodology for the Field Evaluation of the Impact of Augmented Reality Tools for Maintenance Workers in the Aeronautic Industry

Quentin Loizeau,Fakhreddine Ababsa,Frédéric Merienne,Florence Danglade

doi:10.3389/frvir.2020.603189

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) enhances the comprehension of complex situations by making the handling of contextual information easier. Maintenance activities in aeronautics consist of complex tasks carried out on various high-technology products under severe constraints from the sector and work environment. AR tools appear to be a potential solution to improve interactions between workers and technical data to increase the productivity and the quality of aeronautical maintenance activities. However, assessments of the actual impact of AR on industrial processes are limited due to a lack of methods and tools to assist in the integration and evaluation of AR tools in the field. This paper presents a method for deploying AR tools adapted to maintenance workers and for selecting relevant evaluation criteria of the impact in an industrial context. This method is applied to design an AR tool for the maintenance workshop, to experiment on real use cases, and to observe the impact of AR on productivity and user satisfaction for all worker profiles. Further work aims to generalize the results to the whole maintenance process in the aeronautical industry. The use of the collected data should enable the prediction of the impact of AR for related maintenance activities.

Highlights

ContextThe aeronautic industry is faced with problems related to the complexity of maintenance documentation
This study focuses on the use of AR content on the shop floor and the help it provides operators on MRO tasks
Quantitative Performance Measures – Process Side The results are summarized in Table 3 and presented in Figure 9 for “total time saved” and in Figure 10 for the RUA calculated with Eqs. 1, 2 of Selection of Evaluation Criteria

Summary

Introduction

The aeronautic industry is faced with problems related to the complexity of maintenance documentation. Workers are overloaded with all the information necessary to perform each maintenance task on each equipment configuration while needing to apply the right procedures according to the regulatory structure (EASA, 2019). Aeronautics is a demanding sector because the safety of millions of passengers is at stake every day (IATA, 2018). Aircrafts are made up of advanced products and equipment optimized to ensure essential advanced technological functions while best meeting numerous constraints. Rigorous procedures must be followed to achieve the right quality standards. Aeronautical maintenance workers have to cope with the complexity and the variety of equipment, as well as the quality requirements that must be met

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion