Evaluation of Different Feedback Conditions on Worker’s Performance in an Augmented Reality-based Support System for Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Manufacturing

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are materials with excellent mechanical properties. However, slight variations in the manufacturing process lead to substantially decreasing mechanical stability and additional production costs for assuring the product’s quality. For large lot sizes a high process quality can be achieved through automation. However, for small lot sizes manual processes are required, which introduce variances in process quality. To support workers in the manual production however, there is little support to guide them and to reduce the variance in product quality. Augmented Reality (AR) applications are successfully used to offer guidance in other manufacturing processes. Yet, no empirical studies of the applicability of AR to support CFRP processing have been carried out. Therefore we present an AR based prototypic worker support system for CFRP manufacturing. Empirically, the impact of different feedback modalities (none, auditory, visual, auditory+visual) as well as individual factors on effectivity, efficiency and user satisfaction was investigated. Key findings show that combined feedback worked best for accuracy, however no feedback was fastest. Regarding user preferences, auditory followed by auditory+visual feedback was rated best. Taking user preferences and performance into account will provide useful guidelines for the development of a support system.

Keywords: Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), Augmented Reality (AR), Spatial Augmented Reality, Worker Assistance, Human Factors

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100465