An immersive Augmented Reality (AR) technology enhances productivity and flexibility in manufacturing by providing real-time instructions within workers’ field of view, aiding in complex tasks. According to cognitive load and attention-based theories, AR guidance can reduce cognitive strain, enhancing task performance. The affordance of AR in industrial processes like assembly or disassembly for repair/maintenance has been exploited broadly. However, the prevailing studies on automated user interfaces for AR instruction development, specifically virtual scene creation and target generation for object mapping rendering, still need to be explored. Notably, production industries currently rely on outsourcing skilled professionals to create AR overlaying instructions using manufacturer input. However, the exactness of the disassembly repository is substantial to avoid defects in AR guidance particulars. This underscores the significance of generalized automated AR instruction development and emphasizes the demands for further research. In this work, the autonomous AR-integrated framework is developed for the disassembly context, empowering manufacturers to acquire desired outcomes across various modules. These modules include the validation of the manual user disassembly sequence repository during the prefatory phase of AR instruction creation and the provision of Disassembly Sequence Planning (DSP) input. Additionally, the framework supports the simulation/rendering of disassembly efforts in a virtual platform and the generation of rendering virtual display scenes for appropriate AR-guided object mapping. Furthermore, it enables the generation of essential model targets for registering the AR scenes. Subsequently, the extracted repositories (virtual scenes and model targets) are input into the Unity AR tool to create AR mapping guidance for disassembly operations. The performance of the autonomous disassembly module is evaluated through three case studies with different AR visualizations. Furthermore, the potential of the proposed framework is exploited by extracting feedback from experts regarding flexibility, compatibility, completion time, and cognitive level.
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