Online Product Maintenance by Web-Based Augmented Reality

Contemporary product maintenance (including preventive services, repairs and upgrading) is becoming increasingly complex as products become more versatile and inherently complicated and as the number of available model variants multiplies. Consequently, maintenance is becoming a bottleneck in many engineering systems. This paper discusses a new online product maintenance approach based on augmented reality. According to this approach, graphical maintenance instruction and animation sequences are pre-coded (in VRML) at the design stage for typical procedures. These sequences are then transmitted upon request and virtually overlaid on the real product at the maintenance site, where and when they are needed. The instructions are conditional and adjust automatically to conditions at the maintenance site, according to input from the machine and updated knowledge at the manufacturer. This approach can alleviate much of the information overload and training required from maintenance personnel. Moreover, it can improve maintenance procedure efficiency by bringing updated expert knowledge to the field. This paper discusses the concept, function and components of the system and reports preliminary results of a nonimmersive implementation.