Towards the industry 5.0 frontier: Review and prospect of XR in product assembly

Abstract

As an emerging manufacturing paradigm, Industry 5.0 emphasizes human-centric intelligent manufacturing. XR technology (a general term of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality) brings unprecedented opportunities for assembly in such manufacturing paradigm. We provide a comprehensive review, in-depth analysis, and prospect on XR in product intelligent assembly from two points of views of technology and application. Subsequently, the benefits and potential of XR in assembly are discussed from three perspectives of users, enterprises and industries. Finally, challenges and future research directions for XR are outlined from the perspectives of hardware issues and technological maturity. This review is expected to provide useful references for XR-related research and application in the future.