AR Headset Avatar Mapping for Aircraft Maintenance Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Maintenance crew members in aircraft face challenges in ensuring situational awareness of each other's locations during routine checks, which can lead to safety hazards, and there is a need for expert assistance that may be delayed due to availability issues.
Innovation Solution
A headset with integrated cameras and processors generates a visual representation of the environment, calibrating the user's position using user-defined virtual indicators, and displays avatars of other users or remote experts to facilitate communication and safety protocols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If maintenance crew members perform routine checks and maintenance on aircraft without real-time location awareness, then maintenance tasks can be completed independently, but safety is compromised due to inability to detect other crew members' positions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies (avatars) of maintenance crew members that are displayed in the visual field of other crew members wearing headsets. This copying mechanism allows each crew member to see virtual representations of others without requiring direct physical observation, thereby providing continuous location awareness and improving safety while performing independent maintenance tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary technology (augmented reality headset with avatar display) that mediates between crew members' physical positions and their mutual awareness. The headset acts as an intermediary device that receives location data, processes it into visual avatars, and presents it to the user, enabling indirect observation of other crew members' locations without requiring direct line of sight or communication.
2Manufacturing precision
If expert assistance is called when needed during maintenance, then task accuracy improves, but maintenance time increases due to waiting for expert availability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables experts to remotely view the maintenance situation through avatars and visual representations in the headset of the on-site crew member. This copying of the physical environment into the virtual space allows experts to assess situations and provide guidance without being physically present, maintaining high maintenance quality while eliminating waiting time for expert arrival.
Solution Approach 2:
The headset system serves multiple functions: it provides location awareness of all crew members, enables communication between them, and allows remote experts to join the conversation and view the situation. This multi-functionality means that a single device can address both safety concerns and expert consultation needs, reducing the need for separate systems and minimizing time loss.
3Productivity
If multiple maintenance crew members work in different areas of the aircraft simultaneously, then maintenance productivity increases, but safety risk increases due to lack of coordination
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates virtual avatars of all maintenance crew members that are displayed in each other's visual fields through headsets. This copying mechanism allows multiple crew members to work simultaneously in different areas while maintaining awareness of each other's positions, enabling high productivity without compromising safety through lack of coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides continuous feedback about crew member locations through the display of avatars in real-time. As crew members move to different areas of the aircraft, their avatar positions update accordingly, providing immediate feedback that allows for safe coordination of simultaneous maintenance tasks without reducing productivity.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method includes calibrating, at a headset, a position of a headset user in a physical environment based on one or more virtual position indicators designated by the headset user in image data captured by one or more cameras of the headset. The method includes generating a visual representation of the physical environment based at least in part on the position. The visual representation schematically represents one or more structures of the physical environment and includes an avatar positioned in the visual representation to represent a location of a second headset user. The method includes displaying the visual representation of the physical environment at one or more display screens of the headset. The method also includes initiating a communication with the second headset user in response to a detection that the headset user selected the avatar from the visual representation displayed via the one or more display screens.