An augmented reality application framework for complex equipment collaborative maintenance

Complex equipment maintenance process usually involves massive amount of components. It requires collaborative manipulation by many technicians. Therefore, traditional maintenance is difficult to meet the needs of these processes. Augmented reality technology has been demonstrated as an useful solution. This paper introduces an augmented reality application framework applicable to various complex equipments. In the framework, the difference of different equipments maintenance processes is extracted as task-driven work flow, and the functional interfaces of augmented reality are the collective base. We can create a new application as long as we can place the work flow and associated virtual resources within the application. Context-aware tutorial information and hands-free voice commands are provided in the generated applications by the framework. By using the application, the multi-user cooperative operations are well supported. We demonstrate our framework by showing the applications for key aircraft components. We also present a distributed virtual learning tool based on the framework.