Augmented reality (AR) applications for supporting human-robot interactive cooperation

The paper presents an Augmented Reality (AR) tool for supporting operators where humans and robots coexist in a shared industrial workplace. The system provides AR visualization of the assembly process, video and text based instructions and production status updates. The tool also enhances the operator's safety and acceptance of hybrid assembly environments through the immersion capabilities of AR technology. A hardware landscape including the AR equipment and markers, the handheld devices for user input and the network infrastructure for interfacing the robot and the storage database is provided. The software architecture for coordinating the AR tool with the assembly process and the data retrieval from the robot controller are also presented. The tool has been tested on a pilot case in the automotive sector. The results indicate that the approach can significantly enhance the operator's working conditions and their integration in the assembly process. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).