AR Vehicle Service Guidance for Lift Point Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
The vehicle service industry faces challenges in ensuring consistent quality and safety due to varying technician skills, leading to potential mistakes that can cause significant damage and downtime, despite conventional training methods.
Innovation Solution
An augmented reality system using AR devices with environment association, object recognition, and virtual object rendering to provide real-time guidance and oversight, enhancing technician precision and safety during vehicle maintenance tasks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional training methods and technician oversight are used, then device complexity and training requirements are minimized, but service quality consistency and safety are compromised due to human error
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an augmented reality system as an intermediary between technicians and vehicle components. The AR device captures images of the vehicle, retrieves relevant service information, and overlays guidance instructions onto the technician's field of view. This intermediary system provides consistent, error-free guidance without requiring complex training programs or extensive oversight infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy of the service guidance information and overlays it directly onto the physical vehicle components in the technician's view. By copying procedural information into the AR interface and aligning it with the actual vehicle parts, the system ensures technicians follow correct procedures without relying on memory or external references, thereby improving service quality consistency.
2Productivity
If technicians work rapidly to meet productivity benchmarks, then service speed increases, but mistakes such as forgetting components or procedures increase
Solution Approach 1:
The AR system provides continuous guidance information throughout the entire service procedure. As technicians move from one task to another, the system continuously updates the overlay information to reflect the current step, ensuring that guidance is always available without interrupting the workflow. This continuous information delivery allows technicians to maintain high speed while avoiding mistakes through constant procedural reinforcement.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the AR device monitors the technician's progress through image recognition and compares it against the expected procedure. When deviations are detected or steps are completed, the system provides immediate feedback through the overlay interface, confirming correct actions or alerting to missed components, thereby maintaining high reliability even at high productivity levels.
3Reliability
If detailed training and certification programs are implemented, then technician competence improves, but training time and operational overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-loading all necessary service procedures, specifications, and troubleshooting information into the AR device before the technician begins work. The system automatically retrieves and displays the specific guidance relevant to the current vehicle and task, eliminating the need for technicians to have memorized extensive training materials. This shifts the knowledge burden from training to the digital system, reducing training time while maintaining competence.
Data Source
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Figure 2A
AI summary
An environment association system ("EAS") comprising:a processor and a memory;an object recognition process configured to identify objects within images, the objects including one or more of a vehicle, a vehicle lift, a vehicle repair tool, and an alignment fixture; and an EAS interface configured to communicate with a user device, the user device comprising a camera and a display; wherein the processor is configured to: determine, for at least one object in the set of objects, create a virtual overlay for the image based on the position of the at least one object within the image and a virtual marking associated with the at least one object; and provide the virtual overlay to the user device, wherein the virtual overlay is configured to cause the user device to simultaneously display the image and the virtual overlay via the display. The system provides information about the alignment of lifting points of the object with lifting members.