Augmented reality in a serious game for manual assembly processes

This paper presents results from a study in which Augmented Reality (AR) technology has been employed in a serious game for teaching the assembly of a car power generator. Most used car power generators can be remanufactured in order to save material and cost. This is usually done manually and requires a mechanic who knows the different steps of disassembly, cleaning, replacement and re-assembly of the generators components. A serious game has been developed that teaches an apprentice mechanic of which components a car power generator consists and how these components have to be assembled. The game has been implemented as an application for smartphones running the Android operation system. The game employs augmented reality technology in order to let the user interactively experience the spatial arrangement of components and to support the user in validating his learning success.