Design of an assistant system for industrial maintenance tasks and implementation of a prototype using augmented reality

As the complexity of work tasks rises for maintenance workers in modern production facilities, new technologies will be required to support and integrate the service worker of tomorrow. This paper gives an insight into an ongoing research project examining the potential of smart glasses used as a component of assistant systems for workers performing maintenance tasks in an industry 4.0 context. A human centered design process is used to identify the needs of workers and to specify requirements for the assistant system being developed. Thereby, the maintenance of a CNC lathe is used as an example and assistant functions were developed for one specific maintenance task. The architecture of the assistant system proposed in this paper is based on an analysis of the work system including the tasks of the maintenance worker. Finally, the implementation of a first prototype, using state-of-the-art augmented reality smart glasses, is described.