User Experience Evaluation of AR Assisted Industrial Maintenance and Support Applications

TL;DR

This paper evaluates an AR-based industrial maintenance system using HMDs and AI, focusing on user experience, usability, and workload reduction through experimental assessment.

Contribution

It introduces a novel AR interface for industrial maintenance that integrates AI and evaluates its usability and effectiveness in simulated environments.

Findings

AR interfaces improve maintenance intuitiveness

User workload is reduced with AR support

System usability scores are high

Abstract

The paper introduces an innovative approach to industrial maintenance leveraging augmented reality (AR) technology, focusing on enhancing the user experience and efficiency. The shift from traditional to proactive maintenance strategies underscores the significance of maintenance in industrial systems. The proposed solution integrates AR interfaces, particularly through Head-Mounted Display (HMD) devices, to provide expert personnel-aided decision support for maintenance technicians, with the association of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. The study explores the user experience aspect of AR interfaces in a simulated industrial environment, aiming to improve the maintenance processes' intuitiveness and effectiveness. Evaluation metrics such as the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) and the System Usability Scale (SUS) are employed to assess the usability, performance, and workload implications of the AR maintenance system. Additionally, the paper discusses the technical implementation, methodology, and results of experiments conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution.