Training platforms for industrial maintenance and assembly

Industrial maintenance and assembly (IMA) is usually a complex task that involves the knowledge of specific procedures and techniques for each machine. Each technique and procedure requires cognitive memory and knowledge of the way the task should be performed as well as motor knowledge about the movements and forces that should be applied. IMA tasks are common activities since the industrial machineries, usually deployed by manufacturing companies in remote locations around the world, need complex and lengthy maintenance procedures to be performed periodically. Therefore, the training of the technicians to acquire the necessary skills to perform those tasks efficiently is a challenging point. In this sense, the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies could provide some benefits with respect to traditional training systems. This chapter analyzes the use of AR and VR technologies to train technicians on IMA tasks, describing: the fundamental research performed on the procedural skill learning, the application of the results of this research in the development of two new IMA training platforms, and the execution of a skills transfer study for the validation of both platforms.