Interactive Maintenance Workflows for Hands-Free Manual Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional equipment maintenance manuals accessed via laptops are cumbersome and time-consuming, requiring significant manual interaction that diverts attention from the maintenance task, and reporting is often error-prone and time-consuming due to reliance on memory.
Innovation Solution
Enhanced electronic documents are presented via head-mounted displays with interactive workflows, allowing hands-free navigation and integrated reporting, including interactive checklist items and multimedia content, with automated documentation and verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If maintenance manuals are accessed via laptops with keyboards and trackpads, then comprehensive information can be retrieved, but significant time and manual effort are required for navigation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical input methods (keyboard and trackpad operations) with voice-activated commands. The system includes a voice recognition module that captures, processes, and interprets spoken instructions to navigate maintenance manuals and perform search operations, thereby eliminating the need for manual typing and mouse/cursor manipulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides automated navigation and information retrieval through voice commands. The voice recognition system automatically processes spoken requests, identifies relevant maintenance information, and presents it without requiring manual intervention for each navigation step, making the system self-servicing in terms of information access.
2Loss of information
If maintenance specialists manually navigate and document procedures, then detailed information can be accessed, but concentration and effort are diverted from the maintenance procedure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical interaction with voice-activated control. The voice recognition system captures and processes spoken commands to navigate maintenance procedures, allowing specialists to access detailed information without physically interacting with the device interface, thus maintaining concentration on the maintenance task.
Solution Approach 2:
The voice recognition system acts as an intermediary between the maintenance specialist and the maintenance manual system. It translates spoken natural language into system commands and retrieves information, serving as a mediator that enables hands-free access to detailed procedural information.
3Productivity
If reliance on memory is used for reporting, then manual documentation can be performed, but reporting becomes error-prone and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates automated verification mechanisms that provide feedback during the reporting process. The voice recognition system captures maintenance actions, the system verifies them against the maintenance manual requirements, and generates reports with automatic validation, reducing errors through continuous feedback loops.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-documentation by automatically capturing maintenance actions through voice commands, verifying them against procedural requirements, and generating reports without manual intervention. This self-service approach eliminates reliance on memory and reduces both errors and time consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
The present application describes a technique for enhancing an electronic version of a maintenance manual or procedure with an interactive workflow, and presenting the enhanced electronic document using mobile computing devices that can be operated easily hands-free. The workflow primarily consists of a set of interactive checklist items that a maintenance specialist can mark complete via a spoken command. The enhanced electronic documents are additionally associated with supplemental multimedia content, presented contextually based on the currently selected and active checklist item. Furthermore, the document viewing application provides for integrated reporting functionality, enabling a maintenance specialist to capture relevant information during the maintenance procedure, for subsequent use in generating and submitting a report either electronically or via hard copy. The mobile computing devices on which the electronic documents are presented additionally provide on-site maintenance specialists with the ability to establish telepresence sessions and otherwise communicate with remote maintenance specialists.