A Transdisciplinary Approach to Holographic Indoor Navigation Using Mixed Reality and Cloud Computing

The advent of Industry 4.0 has led to the need to train highly skilled operators in complex and dynamic environments, through the convergence of physical and digital technologies. In this context, indoor navigation plays a crucial role in the training of Operators 4.0, allowing them to acquire spatial knowledge and specific skills to operate effectively in advanced industrial environments. However, the challenges associated with this technology, such as environmental complexity and obstacles, require an innovative approach to operator training. Mixed Reality (MR) represents a promising technological innovation for the development of these systems. Indeed, MR enables the co-represence of digital and real world, by content overlapping and integrated interaction between virtual and real assets, promoting efficiency, safety and user engagement. Within this scenario, the paper proposes a Holographic Navigation (HoloNav) methodology based on spatial and cloud computing for the development of an indoor navigation application according to a transdisciplinary approach. The application is deployed on the Microsoft HoloLens 2 as MR device, using Microsoft Azure Spatial Anchors (ASA) and Cloud Storage Account resources. This study aims to provide an applied methodology and guidelines for application development, and to analyze the broader social implications and potential for social change of such MR technology to support training processes. The proposed ASA-based HoloNav approach was applied through a case study, where a tour inside the spare parts warehouse was developed for new operators who need to start familiarizing themselves with all the different areas.