Augmented Reality for Human-Robot Cooperation in Aircraft Assembly

Augmented Reality (AR) is often discussed as one of the enabling technologies in Industrie 4.0. In this paper, we describe a practical application, where Augmented Reality glasses are used not only for assembly assistance, but also as a means of communication to enable the orchestration of a hybrid team consisting of a human worker and two mobile robotic systems. The task of the hybrid team is to rivet so-called stringers onto an aircraft hull. While the two robots do the physically demanding, unergonomic and possibly hazardous tasks (squeezing and sealing rivets), the human takes over those responsibilities that need experience, multi-sensory sensitiveness and specialist knowledge. We describe the working scenario, the overall architecture and give design and implementation details on the AR application.