Mobile augmented reality to support fuselage assembly

One major manufacturing challenge of the fourth industrial revolution is the quality of product development information used in the assembly line. One of the most studied information visualization technologies is Augmented Reality (AR), whose deployment via mobile devices is currently being promoted. However, the industrial sector still has doubts regarding the technology's maturity and the costs incurred by such production processes, restricting its deployment in production environments. Thus, in the present study, we statistically analyze a markerless AR application, using a hand-held mobile device, that addresses the requirements of the structural assemblies used in aeronautical industries comparing them to those of traditional assembly methods. The main technological benefits and limitations of such applications are identified. To perform this analysis, we conducted a field evaluation where qualified professionals marked the positions of small brackets in an aeronautical structure by using AR. After collecting the time and measurement data for each bracket's position, a statistical analysis was performed to compare these positionings against those achieved using a traditional, metric scale-based method. The results indicate that AR offers a faster solution for highly complex assemblies, despite several limitations regarding the positioning tolerance when using the technology. As a future study, several application modifications are suggested to reduce markup errors and overall usage time.