Augmented Reality

In the production and operation of complex, one- of-a-kind products, disruptions inevitably occur. In practice, there are often deficits in terms of transparency and information flow when it comes to disruption management. Digital assistance systems facilitate disruption documentation: they increase the quality of information by locating it in the CAD model and in the overall product plan, thus accelerating targeted fault elimination. A generic data model makes it possible to use digital assistance systems for different products, trades and processes and in different product life phases. (Only in German)

The authors present a methodological approach for designing assistance systems conducive to learning and derive requirements for their design. They base the design of these systems on a fundamental understanding of the cooperation between humans and machines, which still places decisions and responsibility with humans. Finally, the authors show concrete requirements and measures of a participatory design and implementation process.

The use of LNG propulsion in ships has significant environmental benefits but also creates chal- lenges in handling. Due to safety regulations, the maintenance of the LNG ship systems requires a high degree of reliability and accuracy. Thus, this paper deals with the development and evaluation of an AR-assistance system. The system based on an Android smartphone enables users to access maintenance instructions and manuals and supports the work process step by step through context-sensitive virtualizations. Its evaluation was conducted as a combined quantitative and qualitative user study.

Companies, especially SMEs, face the challenge of introducing digital technologies efficiently and as smoothly as possible. Using the introduction of a digital assistance system in technical service as an example, this article shows which challenges and problem areas arise, how they can be overcome and which factors promote a successful introduction process. In the process it is worked out how SMEs with few resources can generate a high degree of participation and acceptance. The basis is a socio-technical understanding that takes a holistic view of the overall system of people, technology and organization in the introduction process of digital technologies.

The employee remains a key productivity element in industrial assembly. Assembly assistance systems have therefore become an integral part of employee support. This paper presents a novel assistance system that complements process-related assistance with human-centered functionalities. In addition, an approach for the systematic evaluation of assembly assistance systems is presented in this paper. The research is based on an evaluation of the current state of the art through systematic market analysis of available assembly assistance systems.

The level of networking and complexity in intelligent manufacturing is constantly increasing. As a result, the demands on employees are growing, especially due to changing work tasks. In addition, the existing lack of skilled workers leads to bottlenecks. The use of remote technologies opens up new opportunities for collaboration, especially in maintenance. Considering the challenges of industrial maintenance, to what extent can remote technologies be used to efficiently meet these demands? This article provides an overview of the remote technologies currently used and discussed in practice and research. In addition, it shows which prerequisites must be created for an effective application of the technologies.

With industry 4.0 technologies the new demands on production companies can be made manageable. The most common issue is the lack of transparency and efficient structure in intralogistics processes. In various projects of the Mittelstand 4.0 Kompetenzzentrum Chemnitz the use of Auto-ID and assistance systems has shown how this deficiency can be remedied. In one of these a local company improves its transparency and reduced the intralogistic search effort by 20 %.