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Augmented Reality for Training, Operation and Maintenance of Metal Forming Machines

The digital transformation of industrial environments hardens the provision of advanced information transparency, where the shopfloor operator will be an active actuator in the production process. Thanks to the modern visualization technologies, such as Augmented Reality (AR), the vision of borderless human and machine interaction is empowered, with operators interfering in the manufacturing processes by monitoring and managing the production resources. ARTOM aims to use this concept into the development and commercialization of an AR application for supporting manufacturers working with metal forming machines in the training, operational and maintenance activities. ARTOM solution can be used to support the whole life cycle of human interaction with the machine boosting production efficiency and bringing comfort to the operator.

Scope & Challenges

ARTOM focuses on the following aspects:

q Seamless operator support during production operations
q Real-time assistance from expert engineer on the network
q Workforce training in virtual environment
q Performance tracking and safety
q Personalization to operator’s profile
 
In order to achieve these scopes ARTOM should provide:

 

q Comfortability in the hardware and software for the operator

Solution

  • IoT Platfrom
  • Process Configuration UWP
  • AR Application
  • Virtual Operation Module
  • Physical Operation Module
  • Remote Assistane Module
  • Perfomance Statistics
  • Operator skills
  • Remote Assistance UWP

The Product

  • Remote assistance application
  • When an unexpected events happen on the factory, ARTOM provides the capability to have a live session with an expert engineer via the cloud directly from the AR application. Unlike traditional communication tools (e.g. Skype) this will allow the participants to exchange holographic content in the pursuit of finding the problem’s solutions
  • Online Operator Support
  • ARTOM provides real-time navigation for the operator through the process steps during production operations. This is supported by textual information, audio, and animated holographic content to the operator’s field of view. This allow the operator to reduce time and avoid errors that might cause quality reduction.
  • Virtual Training
  • Operators can train on virtual environment and undergo all the process steps for the successful materialization of a product without the need for any physical contact. The user, gets familiar with the process without the risk for error or injuries.
  • Safety
  • Operator is acknowledged in real-time for any danger over the workspace, with real-time feedback from the machinery states. This eliminates the operator’s anxiety while working and eliminates the risk for a fatal error while working long-hours.
  • Performance
  • The operator has the ability to track his/ her operational performance, allowing to inspect the journey of improvement throughout time.
  • Personalization
  • ARTOM product allow excessive reconfigurability of the application’s content, enabling users with various experience and requirements to be achieved via the same product.

Impact

Increase process quality 30%

 

Thanks to AR instructions, scrap due to operator mistakes could be avoided; still

remain a percentage of scrap that could be cause by bad quality sheet metal or
failure on the machine during the process

 

Increase performance 10%

 

Time reaction to the process plan steps will achieved thanks to AR instructions that will let the operator know immediately how to handle a sheet and setup a machine.

Eliminate safety risks

 

The utilization of digital equipment for the operator’s training, will eliminate

the risk of accidents. In addition, real-time operation feedback will
acknowledge the operator in case of an unsafe movement during machining.

 

Decrease of repair time from 2-5 days to a few hours

 

Using the AR application, the operator could have immediate feedback from service engineer, also thanks to the support

 

Consortium

lms
bazigos
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Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation (LMS) Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics University of Patras

www.lms.mech.upatras.gr

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Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation (LMS) Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics University of Patras

+30 2610 910 160​

Contact us

Dr. Kosmas Alexopoulos

Software development for Manufacturing

alexokos @ lms.mech.upatras.gr