Checklist AR: Augmented Reality for maintenance

Augment IT by Netcetera and Müller Technologie AG in Frauenfeld have successfully tested the use of augmented and mixed reality for maintenance. Digitalizing the checklist helps maintenance personnel perform work of the same quality with less training and experience. Furthermore, data can be collected for the traceability of maintenance work.

What is it about?

Augment IT by Netcetera and Müller Technologie AG in Frauenfeld have successfully tested the use of augmented and mixed reality for maintenance. Digitalizing the checklist helps maintenance personnel perform work of the same quality with less training and experience. Furthermore, data can be collected for the traceability of maintenance work. Müller Technologie, part of the leading Müller Gleisbau Group in Switzerland, develops, builds and maintains machines for modern railway and track construction. It is the only company in Switzerland to offer silo freight wagon cleaning and maintenance in accordance with GHP standards.

This video shows how a maintenance employee sets a reference point after identifying the freight wagon and starts to run through a checklist of typically 50 to 100 checkpoints. The worker is guided to the individual checkpoints by means of navigation support and in this way carries out the process. Contextual information (text, image, video, 3D and web content) is displayed in the correct place, thus supporting the employee while they work.

This showcase has demonstrated that an augmented reality checklist enables employees with less training to perform the same tasks as their more experienced colleagues.

The high level of accuracy of the solution is particularly noteworthy – even in an industrial environment with freight wagons 25 meters in length, which you repeatedly have to walk around, the accuracy of the checkpoints is still very good. Furthermore, no fixed installation or infrastructure is required and creating new checklists or modifying the existing checklist can be done quickly and easily.

The augmented reality checklist is currently running on Microsoft HoloLens and the Android ZenFone AR phone. Additional devices will be added soon.

What others say

“ChecklistAR helps maintenance personnel to perform work of the same quality with less training and experience. Our company expects more flexibility in workforce planning as a result.”

Roman Fischer
Head of IT and Q-Systems, Member of the Management Board at Müller Gleisbau AG

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