Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles 81
kkleiner writes "ARMAR, or Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair, is a head mounted display unit that provides graphic overlays to assist you in making repairs. An Android phone provides an interface to control the graphics you view during the process. Published in IEEE, and recently tested with the United States Marine Corps on an armored turret, ARMAR can cut maintenance times in half by guiding users to the damaged area and displaying 3D animations to demonstrate the appropriate tools and techniques."
Some Thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)
It certainly seems like an interesting idea, nonetheless. I would love to see it hit the civilian market at a low enough price. I have to admit, though, that I would be irked if vehicles and other machines began to be designed in such a way that this piece of hardware was near essential to work on them. If it has a low cost, sure, then it might not be a big deal. However, if it has a high cost like some code-readers and is essential to work on your own vehicle, well, that would make me start ranting about my lawn and my Phillips screwdrivers.
Boeing (Score:4, Interesting)
Summary, as usual, misses the point. (Score:1, Interesting)
The controllable overlay is not the interesting part; Microvision had such a system several years ago. Google for "microvision nomad expert technician" to find the references. The interesting part is the beacon & camera system that allows the overlay to react to where the user is and what part of the vehicle he is looking at.
Re:Looks Neat (Score:3, Interesting)
The newer aircraft are pretty much idiot-proof, anyway. Once you get rid of analog sensors/gauges and the old cam-and-roller based controllers, troubleshooting gets a lot easier. Now you just plug in to the on-board diagnostic system, and 9 times out of 10 it'll tell you exactly what the problem is. I'm not sure that this "ARMAR" technology would make the process any easier or faster.
Re:Wait a minute! (Score:4, Interesting)
Obligatory link to story detailing the reduction [marshallbrain.com] of humans to a mere servo in the machine.
Augmented Repair Reality Haynes Edition (Score:1, Interesting)
Yeah and maybe it could help me find the pesky DRL (daytime running lights) module on my F250. Who the heck would put it behind the bumper except Ford?
Or perhaps it would provide appropriate expletives to use while pulling the starter out of a Suzuki JLX.
Kidding aside, I could see the usefulness of a heads-up reference display. It would be great if it also displayed OBD results and test meter readings... oh and would remotely start/operate the vehicle controls while you're stuck under the hood.
Re:Looks Neat (Score:3, Interesting)
disclaimer: Former SSBN crewman, Missile, guidance, and fire control tech.
That depends on what part/type of troubleshooting it was used for I should think. It seems pretty useful for locating a particular cable in a rats nest, or an obscure adjustment or lubrication point. I can think of a couple of troubleshooting procedures it would have been very handy to have such a device had I ever had to do them. One emergency procedure I was trained to do, for example, hadn't ever been done in the thirty year history of the Force when I was in. (Odds are, that still holds true for complicated reasons I won't go into here.)
You're looking at from the backshop POV, not the line maintenance POV.
Also, there's more to the service than avionics. Aircraft are designed around LRU's which are quickly swapped out from a pool to get the aircraft ready, then the LRU's are sent to the shops for more leisurely repair.
On the boats, we don't have LRU's that are swapped out or backshops to send them to - we open the gear and work on it directly, so the design/packaging philosophy is different. Most of my fire control gear (and much of the rest of the electronics on the submarine) had modules on the front, plugged into a backplane, and then cables on the back of the backplane, which was hinged like a door for when access was required.
99% percent of the troubleshooting and repair was done just by swapping circuit card modules, and the system was designed to have that maintenance done 'live' in real time. (That is, we powered down the backplane containing the module of interest, leaving the rest of the unit powered.) That way (in fire control for example) could rapidly enter the equipment and make repairs even while shooting missiles using the redundant string or shooting the missiles that weren't impacted by the fault.
A system like the one in TFA that was hooked into our BITE systems and could lead the tech directly to the 051C9B35 module (for example) would be quite useful under battle conditions.
Re:Looks Neat (Score:4, Interesting)
Replacing an ECU (PCM, same thing) is a tricky venture sometimes.
Being the honest mechanic, I usually offered an alternative to my customers. I let them decide after explaining.
I had a roughly 50% success rate of fixing these cars--cars that all testing seemed to indicate a wonky/bad ECU--by simply taking the circuit board out of the ECU housing (carefully!) and giving it a gentle twist on two different axis, then re-installing it.
50% of the time the problem went away, never to return. The other 50% of the time it ended up needing replacement eventually. If the customer didn't mind the risk of the problem re-occuring they usually went for the twist test. Saved my customers thousands of dollars.
I have no idea why this fixes some ECUs. Since all the connections are board-soldered, I can olny assume stressing the internals of some component on the board was enough to get it back in spec. Weird, I know.
My own Chrysler Town and Country had this "repair" done to it to solve an intermittent turn signal loss...4 years ago...and it still works.
Since figuring this out, I do this on ANY malfunctioning device with circuit boards...take them out, give 'em a twist and re-install them. It often fixes the problem. Fixed a laptop, two PCs, a stereo amplifier and a snowmachine this way.