In-Situ Support for Automotive Manufacturing Using Spatial Augmented Reality

Abstract

In automotive manufacturing, quality inspection of spot welding demands excessive manual operations. Operators refer to a printed drawing of the testing body, with the inspection points marked on this drawing. Operators have to locate the matching spot on the drawing and the body manually to perform the inspection. Further more, different subsets of spots are inspected on different car bodies with a pre-determined sequence. This paper describes a system that projects visual data onto arbitrary surfaces for providing just-in-time information to a user in-situ within a physical work-cell. This system aims to reduce the inefficiencies and potential mistakes in manual inspection process. This paper discusses how spatial augmented reality and head-mount displays may be combined to display global information visible by all operators as well as personalized information to individuals. Further investigations on applying spatial augmented reality for spot welding inspections are explored, including four types of digital information projected onto the surfaces of car body parts under structured work environments: 1) Location of spot welds; 2) Inspection methods; 3) Operation Description Sheet (ODS) information; 4) Visualization of weld locating methods. Three visualization methods are used to attract operators' attention to locate the position of spot welds efficiently. This paper also proposes a method to project augmentations on objects moving along an assembly line. The proposed system allows operators becoming more effective and efficient in performing proper inspections, by providing them the required information at the required time without the need to refer to paper-based manuals or computer terminals.