Military mechanics are part of the unsung heroes of our (US) armed forces. Ask anyone who either served or is currently serving over-seas (or at home for that matter) and they’ll tell you ‘Murphy’ is usually in full effect and any and all vehicles will eventually break down. 'Murphy,' or Murphy's Laws are a military joke that ulitmately means "anything that can go wrong, will." (See Murphy's Laws) Weather its aircraft, ships or vehicles; without these mechanics you simply cannot take the fight to the enemy. As you can imagine, mechanics are usually one of the last few to acquire all the fun tech-toys some of the other MOS’s (Army Military Occupation Specialists) receive and are usually limited to hand or power tools to get the job done. That may be a thing of the past as Steven Henderson and Steven Feiner from the Columbia University’s Computer Graphics & User Interfaces Lab are looking to outfit our men and women mechanics with an augmented reality system that will enable them to see in a whole new perspective.
Called ‘ARMAR’ (Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair) the augmented reality system overlays useful information over the area of the vehicle that’s being worked on. The user wears a tracked head-set with micro-screens that can display arrows (for problem location), text labels (for the various parts) and animation sequences with real-time diagnostic data that are designed to help the mechanic with reassembly of the part in question. This mobile AR system can also send a live feed to supervisors stationed elsewhere for monitoring and assisting with the repairs being performed. ARMAR was tested against two other systems that included an untracked head-worn system and a laptop (system being currently used by mechanics) in a controlled environment on a Marine Corps LAV-25A1 (armored personnel carrier). The results showed that the mechanic could perform the repair more quickly over the other two systems without the need for excess head movements. Another test was conducted using what’s known as the ‘psychomotor’ phase of the repair. This is where the physical layout of the equipment being worked on is changed through the repair itself. These results showed that the mechanic again was able to complete the task more efficiently and quickly over the 3D-based laptop as well as the untracked head-gear.
As a result of the tests conducted, the researchers plan to implement ‘Opportunistic Controls’ into the ARMAR platform which would give the person using it the ability to use gestures with relative ease as well as provide tangible feedback. As an example; a user could assign a set of virtual buttons to various objects with the relevant information attached to each button thereby giving the user haptic information needed as a pop-up screen according to which one is pressed. Again, this was tested against the other two base-line systems and was found to be superior over the others. While ARMAR is still in its infancy, the test results should help the researchers improve the over-all effectiveness of the system and have it available for our invaluable military mechanics sometime in the near future as they have earned the right to get the ‘latest and greatest’ toys as any other outfit in the military!
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