An augmented reality based system for remote collaborative maintenance instruction of complex products

Product maintenance is a knowledge intensive task. With the increasing complexity of modern large scale products, the maintenance process usually is carried out collaboratively by onsite technicians and remote experts. Augmented reality provides a novel interactive way for collaborative maintenance work. In an augmented instruction scene, the real maintenance product is combined with visual information and thus helps the technician to understand the process, which will be more efficient than traditional maintenance manual or oral words. In order to reduce the data quantity transferred between the local technician site and remote expert site, a framework of augmented reality based collaborative maintenance real-time instruction platform under network environment is proposed to achieve efficiently guidance from remote expert. The augmented information for maintenance process instruction is classified and their visualization methods are realized. During the collaborative maintenance process, the instruction information is shared based on different patterns. A prototyping system is developed for onsite technician and remote expert. The augmented collaborative maintenance process instruction is illustrated by replacing an air filter of an auto engine.