AR-Planning Tool - Designing Flexible Manufacturing Systems with Augmented Reality

The technology of augmented reality (AR), as a new user interface, introduces a completely new perspective for the design of technical manufacturing systems. This technique supports a face to face collaboration where users need to be able to easily cooperate with each other. As with typical construction sets like LEGO or Fischertechnik, the planning engineers model the future manufacturing system in their real environment. The components are taken from virtual construction sets and are positioned interactively in the manufacturing hall. Planning rules are used to assist the user and to prevents possible errors. This article describes the conception of a virtual construction set and the realization of its prototype. The description of the development of this construction set is supplemented by an illustration of the used hardware and software components.