A Handheld Mobile Augmented Reality Tool for On-Site Piping Assembly Inspection

In the context of Industry 4.0, Augmented Reality occupies an important role thanks to its unique capability to enhance the perception of the real world with virtual information. Taking advantage of this capability, the paper presents a handheld mobile Augmented Reality tool that supports manufacturing and production workers and engineers to easily check on-site the ongoing operations carried out in the manufacturing environment for the tubing and piping assembly. The tool runs on a modern tablet and performs an augmented reality visualization of the 3D models, as defined in the project plan, on the corresponding physical objects. In this manner the user can easily check the presence of assembly errors or detect design discrepancies. The level of acceptance of the proposed handheld mobile Augmented Reality tool has been assessed by means of a preliminary test carried out with representative users on a real case study. Results from the experiment are presented and discussed in the paper.