The use of augmented reality glasses for the application in industry 4.0

Abstract

In nowadays Industrial environment, the fast changes of machine components and the growing need of specialised worker claims an evolution. In the towards of this direction, the Industry 4.0 paradigm seems to play a pivotal role, because is aimed at making industrial production entirely automated and interconnected. Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the nine pillar of the new Industry environments and is still considered and is a real solution for several purposes, first of all production environments. In this article we propose a case study of a training-on-the-job application through the use of glasses for AR, using Unity framework and Vuforia libraries. The goal is to develop an AR android application that allows to assist the operator during the assembly phase of an object composed of numerous components that must be assembled in a precise order and together with a final verification measurements on some parts of the final object. This work poses considerable attention to the usability of the HDM device and the readability of the information. The application has been validated after a number of practical tests carried out by specialized technicians who normally perform this type of assembly. The description of the applied procedure and the assessment are presented.