Support for a complex assembly task through augmented reality instructions with see-through data glasses

Comparison with smartphone and paper instructions

Abstract

The study presented here deals with the assembly of an emergency door release handle for unlocking the doors of railway vehicles at a realistic workstation with different instructions. For this purpose, a new AR instruction with see-through data glasses was developed and compared with smartphone-based AR instructions and paper instructions. The paper instructions represent the status quo of the assembly process. The implementation with see-through data glasses is technically more complex but has the advantage over the previously analysed smartphone that the hands are free for assembly. The hypotheses investigated are that the type of instruction has an influence on the assembly time, the number of errors, the usability and the strain on the assembler. Each type of instruction was studied with eight subjects and five assembly runs in a between-subjects design. There was no significant difference in total assembly time between the see-through data glasses and the smartphone. A comparable number of errors with lower strain makes the see-through glasses still interesting for knowledge transfer.