Augmented maintenance of powerplants: a prototyping case study of a mobile AR system

Augmented reality (AR) research has progressed in great strides over the past few years. Most current demonstrations focus on providing robust tracking solutions since this is the most critical issue when demonstrating AR systems. An issue that is typically neglected concerns the online access, analysis and visualization of information. The information required by AR demonstration systems is kept to a minimum, is prepared ahead of time, and is stored locally in the form of three-dimensional geometric descriptions. In complex mobile settings, these simplifying assumptions do not work. The authors report on recent efforts at the TU Munich to analyze the information generation, retrieval, transmission, and visualization process in the context of maintenance procedures that are performed in nuclear power plants. The use of AR to present such information online has significant implications for the way information must be acquired, stored, and transmitted. The paper focuses on pointing out open questions, discussing options for addressing them, and evaluating them in prototypical implementations