Visual Aided Assembly of Scale Models with AR

The study of the methodologies useful to support the assembly of parts is a challenging engineering task which can benefit of the most recent innovations in computer graphics and visualization technologies. This paper presents a proposal for an innovative methodology based on Virtual and Augmented Reality useful to support the components’ assembly. The herein introduced strategy is based upon a four stages procedure: at first the designer conceives the assembly sequence using a CAD system, visualizing the scene wearing an immersive Virtual Reality device. In the second stage, the same sequence is developed by an unexperienced user using the same equipment: the differences between two assembly sequences are recorded and exploited to detect critical points in the assembly sequence and to develop a Knowledge Based System. Finally, a virtual user manual is pro-duced in Augmented Reality. When the final user uses the tool, the position of the object to assemble is detected by tracking the finger position of the user it-self. A series of symbols and writings is added to the external scene to help the end-user in the assembly procedure. A test case based on the assembly of a scale model has been developed to evaluate the methodology. After an evaluation pro-cess, the procedure seems to be feasible and presents some advantages over the state-of-the-art methodologies proposed by literature.