The Production Quality Control Process, Enhanced with Augmented Reality Glasses and the New Generation Computing Support System

Abstract

The world is accelerating the digitisation of many branches of the economy. In production, it is often called Industry 4.0 - the term invented by Prof. Wahlster in Germany. One branch of ‘Production Digitisation’ is Augmented Reality (AR)- a technology that gives a very convenient and natural human-machine interface. Users are presented with the information requested, right in front of their eyes, and can communicate with the system through simple gestures and speech. The key advantage of AR is having one’s handsfree so that the user can perform his/her regular tasks, unhindered. In the first part of this paper, the concept of using AR glasses, in the quality control process, is presented. The present authors describe a proprietary support system. A specific example is then given in a real production environment on a real production process, comparing the old way with the new AR way of conducting test procedures. An evaluation of its usability is characterised using important factors that can affect the final outcome or features of the product and the manner in which it is applied in real life. In concluding, the authors focus on its advantages, the disadvantages, the technological imperfections, and the limitations and go on to deliberate on the conclusions and further research topics.