Augmented
Reality-Enabled Aircraft Maintenance Documentation System
for
Urban
Air Mobility Vehicles
This initiative aims to let
maintenance personnel transmit their unique systems expertise in real-time via
augmented reality without learning a complicated interface or utilizing
expensive technology in urban air mobility vehicles. The proposed sociotechnical
system is to be examined for practicality and flaws. One of the businesses that
require the most significant amount of capital investment is aviation's civil
sector. Even the most minor enhancements to an asset's functioning and maintenance
can result in considerable cost savings and efficiency, mainly when such assets
use parts with a high unit cost and a low production volume. The Internet of
Things (IoT) and augmented reality are two of the most popular and widely
discussed technologies expected to undergo significant development in 2017.
These technologies will start to unlock real benefits for companies involved in
civil aviation, such as airlines and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO)
facilities.
The Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept aims to create a
reliable and cost-effective air transport network that operates at lower
altitudes within urban and suburban areas and uses increasingly automated
aircraft to transport passengers or goods. By providing an alternative to
driving on surface roads in the form of an air taxi, UAM hopes to ease traffic
on the nation's highways and byways
Figure 1
Urban air mobility vehicle
Adapted from
Given the characteristics of the aircraft, the initial UAM
ecosystem will use preexisting helicopter infrastructures like routes,
helipads, and Air Traffic Control (ATC) services. Currently, the FAA is trying
to figure out what infrastructure will be required to support these planes in
the future. It is anticipated that a new vertiport standard will be developed
by FAA soon.
From the European Union's perspective, UAM is a
revolutionary air transportation system that is safer, more secure, and more
sustainable for transporting passengers and freight in urban environments.
Modern technologies make this system possible and are incorporated into
multimodal transportation systems. The transportation is carried out by
electric aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically, and they can
either be flown remotely or have a pilot on board. It is anticipated that
commercial operations will begin in cities within the E.U. around the year
2025, with items being delivered by drones and passengers being transported by
piloted planes
Next-generation maintenance framework for UAM vehicles
Global commerce should expect a dramatic shift in how people
and goods are transported thanks to the advent of UAM vehicles. Maximizing
operational efficiency using the next-generation Maintenance framework is one
of the primary areas to investigate. UAM's operational models could
significantly alter aircraft upkeep procedures. Flying at low altitudes is an
integral part of UAM. This opens the door to using cellular technologies for
air-to-ground and air-to-air communication. It follows that the notion of Digital
Twin can be used to optimize the operation and maintenance as a low-cost,
high-speed air-to-ground data pipe accessible. This allows the status of the
UAM vehicle and its components to be monitored in near real-time, even while in
flight.
Augmented reality
One definition of augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct
or indirect sensory experience of a real-world physical environment that has
been digitally augmented with computer-generated sensory input. AR blends the
real world with computer-generated imagery. It is 3D, may be interacted with,
and registered
AR-enabled aircraft maintenance
The United States Air Force (USAF) invests heavily in
addressing the increase in aviation accidents caused by an overburdened and
understaffed maintenance sector and a high operating tempo. Currently,
technicians examine, service, and repair airplanes using paper-based technical
orders (TO). Many civilian agencies are implementing AR systems to keep up with
the times and increase productivity. This sociotechnical plan describes a sociotechnical
system incorporating AR into UAM vehicle maintenance to improve the precision
and efficiency with which maintenance tasks are completed. The goal is to
improve the effectiveness of augmented reality technical order (TO) maintenance
manuals compared to traditional paper TO. Based on the data collected, it can
be concluded that augmented reality TO creates from both USAF and commercial perspectives
will help speed up workflow and cut down on basic mistakes. The efficiency and
uptake of AR inside an organization depend on its ability to provide results
distinct from previous studies and applications. Experimental research also indicates
the need to overcome present organizational infrastructure limitations before
implementing the technology throughout a maintenance, repair, and overhaul
(MRO) facility
Supply chain management using AR
Rejeb et al. (2021) explore
AR technology's applications in supply chain management (SCM) and logistics. The
researchers focus on the technology's utility to businesses and present an
outline of its many potential benefits. Rigorous research studying the
potential of AR for SCM and logistical activities is scarce. However, the rise
of Industry 4.0 has rekindled interest in AR and how it might address various
difficulties facing existing business models. The researchers did a comprehensive
literature study to organize AR research in supply chain management and
logistics and fill in the gaps in our knowledge. A total of 43 publications
were carefully examined. This research shows that augmented reality can improve
five distinct business processes: inventory management, product development;
sales and outdoor logistics; facility layout; and H.R. management.
Additionally, the authors examine businesses' difficulties when implementing AR
in SCM and logistics.
Promise of AR
The advantages of using augmented reality applications for
upkeep are well-known. The prevalence of high-performance intelligent devices
as the norm for mobile devices bodes well for their practical implementation.
When services must be performed in a no-photography zone, complications arise.
Even if the technician prefers not to utilize paper and pencil, he may always
rely on the information provided by his maintenance assistance system.
Depending on the accessibility of an internal camera and the constraints of the
work environment, the authors elaborate on a concept that provides
context-sensitive assistance, a highly dynamic data model, and different views.
A complicated hydraulic system was used as a laboratory demonstration machine
to test and confirm the provided method. The prototype will be the basis for an
industrial case study exploring the Internet of Things-enabled machinery with
intelligent devices for preventative maintenance
Scope
Maintaining today's machine tools' ever-growing complexity
and uniqueness is challenging and time-consuming. The maintenance engineer can
benefit from AR's visualization of the process with individual working stages
and other straightforward information. Rapid and automated AR-based
documentation generation, including the incorporation of preexisting systems
and data like technical documentation, CAD models, and PDM data, is essential
for a successful rollout. This saves time and energy by preventing the need to
rewrite and create the AR-based documentation from scratch in addition to the
regular paper-based version. Consequently, several theories for developing
augmented reality-based technical documentation for the upkeep of machine tools
are provided and validated, along with an examination of the data, systems, and
procedures necessary for their creation
Purpose
This research examines Urban Air Mobility, a new
low-altitude air transportation service. Six questions are considered:
1.
What are AR-enabled UAM Maintenances?
2.
What makes this industry possible?
3.
What are UAM AR-enabled maintenance significant issues?
4.
What are UAM AR-enabled maintenance challenges?
5.
When will AR-enabled UAM maintenance be available?
Maintenance and
training are vital to flying safety. The maintenance process comprises several
components and extensive procedure expertise. Technicians must follow strict
protocols to prevent maintenance mishaps. Airlines are cost-conscious about
maintenance time. This plan presents an intelligent augmented reality (IAR)
solution to help airplane technicians cope with complicated jobs by employing
an intuitive UI/UX interface
Supporting Forces
Despite the abundance of digital information at our
disposal, there is a significant chasm between the virtual and the material
realms. The vast information we currently must guide industry choices and
actions is stuck on two-dimensional pages and displays, even though the reality
is three-dimensional. Our capacity to benefit from the deluge of data and
insights generated by the world's billions of intelligent, connected products
(SCPs) is hampered by the gap between the digital and physical spheres. Technology
such as augmented reality has the potential to bridge this divide and free
latent powers that are distinctively human. Although still in its infancy,
augmented reality is expected to join the mainstream, with investment in AR
technology expected to reach $60 billion by 2020. Businesses across all
sectors, as well as many other institutions (including schools and nonprofits),
will be impacted by augmented reality. As a result, how the aerospace
maintenance community studies, make decisions and engages with the physical
environment will drastically alter in the following months and years. It will
also impact how businesses compete in the marketplace and serve consumers,
educate workers, develop and manufacture goods, and oversee their value chains
In the early days of AR, researchers were interested in its
potential applications in fields as diverse as medicine, manufacturing,
entertainment, path planning, and identification. Among the many reasons AR is
gaining popularity in both academic and professional settings is its shown
capacity to lessen the mental burden of tasks, shorten the amount of time
needed to complete them, lower the number of mistakes made, and even make
training more efficient.
Challenging Forces
By superimposing computer-generated cues on the actual
environment, AR is a well-known technology that may be used to give mass-market
consumers effective and personalized support across a wide range of personal
applications. A significant contributor to the meteoric rise of these solutions
is the prevalence of mobile technology, particularly smartphones and tablets.
However, several industries are only now beginning to reap the benefits of AR
technology. Since the 1990s, maintenance, repair, and assembly have been
identified as critical domains for the deployment of augmented reality
technology, although limited experimental studies have usually only engaged
professionals utilizing ad hoc hardware. Users may now get AR-based maintenance
and repair guides for consumer electronics. In addition to discussing potential
future directions for this technology, introduce a software architecture that
will use reconfigurable augmented reality techniques and remote help to address
some of the problems with existing approaches.
One of the industrial equipment's most costly and
time-consuming aspects is its maintenance operations and lifecycle engineering.
Many businesses consistently pay significant funds to keep their machinery in
working order. For this reason, any optimizations that help lower the number of
maintenance mistakes and associated costs would be greatly appreciated. An
inadequate supply of specialists results in localized technicians having to
perform on-site maintenance on equipment outside their competence area. It is
well established that augmented reality (AR) can enhance servicing. At the same
time, robust and augmented reality (AR) has obstacles ranging from content
development to spatial perception. This paper describes a method that puts
augmented reality (AR) and the expertise of a subject matter expert (SME) into
the hands of a technician working in the field
Before airline deregulation, most companies would do
maintenance in-house. Deregulation paved the way for increased use of
third-party maintenance providers in an industry where competitive pressures
were rising and airlines were failing and succeeding simultaneously. Airlines
worldwide, not only in the United States, are turning to third parties to do
routine maintenance tasks. The choice to outsource can be influenced by a wide
variety of factors, from the inability of a startup to build its in-house
maintenance program to the desire of a legacy carrier to cut costs in any way
possible. McFadden & Worrels (2012) address aspects of worldwide airplane
maintenance outsourcing.
Approaches, departures, landings, takeoffs, passenger
loading/unloading, security, and charging/refueling must be considered. The UAM
concept of operations development is key to harmonizing infrastructure design
and development. “Vertiplaces” should be designed for safe, effective, and
robust flight operations. Operators should put vertiports in areas that
alleviate congestion and give fair access to people and freight. eVTOL aircraft
operations must evaluate and manage noise pollution in vertiport design, positioning,
and new building development. Real-time weather monitoring will notify eVTOL
aircraft operations of wind gusts, rain, lightning, and snowfall. Predictive
and monitoring capabilities enable safer route planning. Unexpected technical
failures are inevitable; hence eVTOLs need backup landing locations. A working
system needs a high-speed communications network considering urban availability
and resilience
Methods
This section presents an approach to dividing labor among
machines and people. Tasks within the work system (human-human allocations) and
technologically involved tasks within the work system (technological
allocations) are both addressed in the method's many stages (human-machine
allocations). The technique incorporates a set of criteria for making decisions
that let users consider many features of the work, the organization, and the
technology when deciding how to divide tasks.
The purpose of this methodology is to facilitate the
identification of possible allocation choices and the selection of the most
appropriate for use in the design of new systems or the redesign of existing
ones. A secondary goal is to thoroughly investigate the allocation of functions
among individuals instead of focusing on the distribution of functions between
humans and machines, as has been the case with most previous function
allocation approaches. Third, the technique seeks to make deliberate design
choices that might otherwise be assumed, overlooked, or left to chance.
Including a general guideline for its use, such as the recommendation that
people from all disciplines involved in the system's design, management, and
use be involved in using the approach, is one way to facilitate a detailed examination
of design possibilities and alternatives in a workshop setting
Table 1 gives the categories and individual requirements for
allocating work for the methodology used in this sociotechnical system.
Table 1
Requirements for allocating work
|
Category |
Requirement |
|
Types
of allocation |
·
Cover allocations to the humans and the
machines ·
Cover allocations between humans and examine
different human roles ·
Incorporate the concept of dynamic allocations
dependent on real-time contingencies |
|
Issues |
·
Examine the content and quality of the human’s
job ·
Specify decision criteria ·
Consider the trade-offs between the decision
criteria ·
Enable quantitative evaluations to be made of
the choices |
|
Approach |
·
Encourage participative use by various
stakeholders, including the potential end users of the system. ·
Enable users of the method to make informed
choices ·
Be useable early in the design process ·
Allow iterative use throughout the design
process ·
Be easy to learn, usable, and require minimal
training and support |
|
Coverage |
·
Examine the whole system, as well as
individual tasks and roles ·
Apply to complex environments (e.g.,
high-risk, composite task, variable workload, uncertain, dynamic,
time-constrained) and different systems within the same environment ·
Be adaptable to different situations and
tailorable for unique application ·
Be capable of use in new and existing systems ·
Cover the rationale for its use (i.e., enable
its users to realize its importance during the system development process) |
|
Design |
·
Have a structured and systematic format ·
Be cost-effective and efficient in to use ·
Be consistent with existing tools and
techniques (e.g., it should fit into the existing system development cycle
and form the input for established system development processes). |
Note: Reprinted from Older,
M. T., Waterson, P. E., & Clegg, C. W. (1997). A critical assessment of
task allocation methods and their applicability. Ergonomics, 40, 151-171.
Copyright 1997 Taylor & Francis
Analytical Plan
This sociotechnical systems plan adapts a cognitive work
analysis workflow described by Stanton &
Bessell (2014). This workflow comprises six stages of cognitive work analysis:
1.
Work Domain
Analysis
2.
Control Task
Analysis
3.
Strategies
Analysis
4.
Social
Organization
5.
Cooperation
Analysis
6.
Worker
Competencies Analysis
Cognitive work analysis
provides an integrated approach to analyzing large sociotechnical systems, with
a functional means-ends analysis at its foundation. The analysis structure
provides a logical structure for comprehending the inner workings of complex
sociotechnical systems. The goal is to establish a standard against which all
subsequent field interpretations may be evaluated. The analysis's power lies in
the many representations through which the constraints affecting the task may
be analyzed.
Anticipated Results
AR in UAM vehicle maintenance is expected to achieve
widespread adoption; however, this will not happen until several hurdles have
been addressed. Overcoming these obstacles can make technology more
user-friendly and safer to interact with. These problems include technical and social
issues that those opposed to technology may raise. The anticipated hurdles are
exceedingly complicated, such as developers' capacity to adequately capture the
complexity of the urban air mobility vehicle in a model and the ability to
reliably and effectively combine the numerous sources of information acquired
by the AR system. These difficulties are predicted to emerge soon. There is also
the cost issue, which relates to both technological development and end
consumers. Willing participant organizations (presumably MRO facilities) may be
eligible for government subsidies, though this will depend on the outcomes of
any potential regulations that may be enacted.
Conclusion
One of the businesses that require the most significant
amount of capital investment is aviation's civil sector. Even the most minor
enhancements to an asset's functioning and maintenance can result in
considerable cost savings and efficiency, mainly when such assets use parts
with a high unit cost and a low production volume. The Internet of Things (IoT)
and augmented reality are two of the most popular and widely discussed
technologies expected to undergo significant development in 2017. These
technologies will start to unlock real benefits for companies involved in civil
aviation, such as airlines and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO)
facilities
Areas of Future Research
In the future, developers may look into developing other
display platforms that the on-site technician's mobile app can use. The
HoloLens from Microsoft is particularly intriguing because of its wide
availability in the market and rich feature set. In order to work with the new
Universal Windows Platform (UWP) build target and its hardware restrictions,
existing network protocols will need to be reworked. The HoloLens' performance
would then be compared to that of a regular mobile device, with further testing
focusing on things like framerates and how well maintenance instructions are
communicated. The feasibility of in-app voice calling will also be tested. The
technician and specialist could convey information such as serial numbers or
instruments that may not be seen in the video stream or augmented overlay
Finally, comparing this sociotechnical system to a regular
audiovisual call would be easier with the help of user research. The research
results would be used to make the current system more user-friendly. Users'
abilities to troubleshoot and repair a dummy assembly with the help of an AR
system or an audiovisual call to a trained technician would be measured in such
a study. Quantitative and qualitative data, including how much fun people had,
would be collected alongside numbers like average playtime and error rates
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