An augmented reality tool to detect and annotate design variations in an Industry 4.0 approach

Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the nine key technologies of Industry 4.0 and one of the most promising innovation accelerators that in the next years will bring smart factories to a higher level of efficiency. In this context, the paper presents an AR tool that improves and increases the efficiency of data collection and exchange of information among different professional figures involved in the design and production processes of products for the oil and gas sector. In fact, prototyping and labour-intensive activities usually require modifications and improvements to be made on-site that should be sent as feedback to the technical office. To this end, the proposed AR tool supports workers at the workplace to easily detect and annotate design variations made during their working activities and furthermore to formalize and automate the collecting and transferring of this data to the designers in order to prevent loss of information. Field experimentation has been carried out with end-users to evaluate their acceptance by means usability studies, based on objective and subjective metrics, and personal interviews. Experimental results show that the proposed AR tool provides medium-to-high levels of usability and has been positively accepted by all the participants involved in the study.