Augmented Reality Overlay for Aircraft Maintenance Collaboration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft maintenance often requires collaboration among personnel with varying skill levels and locations, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs due to the need for research and meetings, especially when dealing with complex components like composite skin panels, which can result in prolonged aircraft unavailability and increased expenses.
Innovation Solution
An augmented reality information system that uses a camera system to generate video data of aircraft components, allowing information to be identified and displayed on multiple locations, enabling real-time collaboration and guidance for maintenance personnel through a head-mounted system and display devices, with information tailored to each user's profile and clearance level.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If maintenance personnel collaborate in real-time using augmented reality system, then maintenance efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies of the aircraft component through augmented reality overlay, allowing multiple personnel to view and interact with the same digital representation simultaneously. This copying approach enables real-time collaboration without requiring physical presence of all personnel, thereby improving maintenance efficiency while managing system complexity through software-based solutions
Solution Approach 2:
The augmented reality system acts as an intermediary between maintenance personnel and the aircraft component, providing a shared digital interface that facilitates real-time collaboration. This intermediary layer enables experts to guide field personnel through the AR overlay, improving maintenance efficiency while the modular architecture manages system complexity
2Loss of time
If experts provide real-time input through augmented reality system, then aircraft downtime is reduced, but information processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-loads maintenance procedures, component specifications, and troubleshooting guides into the augmented reality overlay before the maintenance task begins. This preliminary preparation allows experts to provide real-time guidance without requiring extensive information processing during the maintenance operation, thereby reducing aircraft downtime while managing information processing requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts only the most critical and relevant information from extensive maintenance databases and displays it in the augmented reality overlay. This selective extraction approach provides necessary expert input quickly while minimizing information processing requirements, thus reducing aircraft downtime
3Loss of information
If information is displayed on multiple display devices with user-specific profiles, then collaboration effectiveness is improved, but data management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The augmented reality system provides a universal platform that automatically adapts to different user profiles and roles. The same AR interface serves multiple functions: displaying component views, overlaying maintenance procedures, providing expert guidance, and enabling collaboration across different locations. This multi-functionality improves information accessibility while managing data management complexity through a single unified system
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for displaying information. A camera system generates video data for an object from a viewpoint of the camera system at a location of the object. Information is identified about the object. The information is displayed on images in the video data on a display system at a number of locations. The display of the images with the information on the images in the video data at the number of locations is from the viewpoint of the camera system.