AMRA: Augmented Reality assistance in train maintenance tasks

The AMRA project, carried out by a consortium including industrials and research partners, aims at implementing an Augmented Reality (AR) system for mobile use in industrial applications such as train maintenance and repairs in industrial sites. The adopted solution is a video see-through system where a tablet-PC is used as an augmented window. The overall architecture of a prototype is unfolded, and its key points are detailed. For instance, a visual registration system has been developed to accurately overlay a video stream with information. A robust, real time registration, using a single camera tied to the tablet-PC, is performed. Besides, a hierarchical description of maintenance procedure is set up and enriched by new media such as photos, video and/or 3D models. These 3D models have been specially tailored to meet maintenance tasks requirements. The obtained multimedia contents allow easy access to technical documentation through a man machine interface managing a multimedia engine. All these features have been combined in the AMRA prototype which have been evaluated by a maintenance operator.