Design and Interaction Interface using Augmented Reality for Smart Manufacturing
Yunbo Zhang, Tsz-Ho Kwok · Procedia Manufacturing · 2018
In this paper, we apply Augmented Reality (AR) technologies to develop a design and interaction interface for Smart Manufacturing (SmartMFG). This work is motivated by the lack of appropriate human-machine-interaction (HMI) tools to support interaction and customization in SmartMFG environment. Trying to address this research problem, we hypothesize that AR-based design interfaces that communicate with Machine Control Unit (MCU) directly will increase the degree of interaction and the complexity of instructions performed in Manual Data Input (MDI) systems. To test this hypothesis, we developed a prototyping system consisting of an AR-tablet device as the input interface and an Ultimaker 3 printer as the machine tool. Firstly, this AR-based system has sensing, design and control capabilities to interact and communicate with the machine tool via Wifi. Secondly, a set of sketch-based computational tools is developed for users to design shapes on existing objects easily and efficiently within the AR environment. Finally, The customized design is converted to machine code, which is also customized based on the machine tool and the registration of the virtual model and the existing object. We tested our system by designing two customized shapes onto an existing shape in the AR environment and generating the G-code to control the printer to fabricate them onto the physical object.