An application of augmented reality to thickness inspection

✍ Scribed by Kyung H. Chung; John P. Shewchuk; Robert C. Williges

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 209 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1090-8471
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6564(199923)9:4<331::aid-hfm1>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the use of augmented reality (AR) for thickness inspection of manufactured parts. The inspection task consisted of determining the thickness of flatbottomed parts via measurements, taken at predetermined locations and in a specified sequence, using a vernier height gage. Inspectors wore a head-mounted AR display, which superimposed information over the surface of the part indicating where measurements were to be taken and in what sequence. Experiments were performed to compare the AR-aided inspection method to traditional computer-aided and manual inspection methods. Results indicated that while all three methods were similar in terms of accuracy, AR-aided inspection was 2-3 times faster than the other methods. Additionally, while inspection time increased with part shape complexity for the manual and computer-aided methods, it was virtually unaffected by part shape complexity for AR-aided inspection. These results indicate the potential use of augmented reality to improve the performance of manual inspection tasks substantially when task-specific information must be conveyed to the operator.