AR Technology: Efficiency Improvement Tool for Shipboard Maintenance
Abstract
Maintenance is a constant throughout the lifetime of a ship and needs to be as efficient as possible for the U.S. Navy to maintain the readiness, capability, and capacity of its surface fleet. The inability to find a maintenance item on a ship by repair personnel during a maintenance period is unacceptable. The current process relies on the written description of a work order, which besides the ship compartment, offers little guidance regarding the precise physical location of the maintenance item. This ambiguity causes inefficiencies in the execution of the repair. Augmented Reality (AR) has strong evidence of positive influence on maintenance in the private sector and, now that it is more commonplace, the U.S. Navy should consider its first practical use. This research developed an experiment to compare the performance between the current process and AR-guided assistance, assessing the efficiency of subjects in terms of time, accuracy, and the subjects confidence in their ability to identify the proper item. The experimental environment involved two rooms differing in levels of complexity, representing shipboard compartments. Through statistical and exploratory analysis, the benefits of AR-guided assisted technology were demonstrated by its outperformance over the current process in all recorded measurements of the experiment. This research provides evidence that AR can potentially close the capability gap existing within the current process.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1150829
Entities
People
- James C. Wiltshire
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School