Smart glasses for Industry 4.0 tested on the shop floor

Research into the application of smart glasses in factory production processes — conducted at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (Fraunhofer IPT) — is now being used for the first time on a factory floor. The software solution ‘oculavis’ has been developed by the Fraunhofer IPT in Aachen to integrate smart devices within the production process, and is now being used by Robert Bosch Elektronika Kft. in Hungary.

The company has recently started applying the software solution to train new staff in assembly line procedures. The smart glasses are particularly useful where complex work sequences are concerned and can be used in highly innovative applications such as directional video telephony or they can be linked to production machines via OPC-UA.

Smart glasses can help manufacturing companies to slash time in control loops: there is no longer any need for users to abandon one activity in order to look up operating or test instructions, for example. The same applies to documentation-related activities which can now be carried out alongside the value-added processes.

The smart glasses comprise a camera for recording videos and images as well as a display, thereby enabling the user to visualise each step in an operation swiftly and directly at the workplace. This enables new, untrained employees, for instance, to learn and work independently from day one. Experienced staff who may be liable to make mistakes when there is a change of model can benefit from the personal imaging system, too. This not only increases productivity in the company, it also helps companies to cope with the current shortage of skilled workers.

The software developed by the Fraunhofer IPT works with commercially available smart glasses with an Android operating system and makes these suitable for industrial use. A process and context editor is used to model individual steps in manual or hybrid processes. The employees in a company can connect to the software via an app on their network-compatible glasses and execute the steps sequentially in a given process. They do this by using the smart glasses to scan a QR code, for example, at the beginning of each manufacturing order. They navigate to the next process step or repeat the previous one via gesture or voice control.

Smart glasses do not just simplify production processes. They can also make process-related information regarding set-up or throughput time available more quickly throughout the company. Ultrashort quality control loops which may even extend beyond the boundaries of the manufacturing facility can be set up in this way.

Additionally, employees can access other practical apps throughout an ongoing process: soon it will no longer be necessary to document suggestions for product or process improvements painstakingly in writing as they can be recorded clearly on the spot via photo, video and speech recording. Direct contact with developers via video call is also possible, permitting urgent problems to be solved together immediately.

Although smart glasses are currently capable of facilitating manual production in industry to a considerable extent, the researchers at the Fraunhofer IPT are confident that exploitation of the potential of smart glasses has only just begun. On the basis of stochastic analyses, context modelling is now revealing context-related data error patterns in existing work cycles. The next step will be to draw conclusions as to the sources and causes of errors and faults so that they can be eradicated in future as part of preventive risk management. Technological advances will be implemented and trialled, permitting their effectiveness to be monitored more easily and swiftly.

Top image: There is enormous potential for the application of smart glasses in industry. © Fraunhofer IPT.

Originally published here.