Applying spatial augmented reality to facilitate in-situ support for automotive spot welding inspection

In automotive manufacturing, the quality of spot welding on car bodies needs to be inspected frequently. Operators often only check different subsets of spots on different car bodies with a predetermined sequence. Currently, spot welding inspections rely on a printed drawing of the testing body, with the inspection points marked on this drawing. Operators have to locate the matching spot on the drawing and the body manually to perform the inspection. The manual inspection process suffers from inefficiencies and potential mistakes. This paper describes a system that projects visual data onto arbitrary surfaces for providing just-in-time information to a user in-situ within a physical work-cell. Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR) is the key technology utilized in our system. SAR facilitates presentation of projected digital Augmented Reality (AR) information on surfaces of car bodies. Four types of digital AR information are projected onto the surfaces of car body parts in structured work environments: 1) Location of spot welds; 2) Inspection methods; 3) Operation Description Sheet (ODS) information; 4) Visualization of weld locating methods. Various visualization methods are used to indicate the position of spot welds and the method used for spot welding inspection. Dynamical visualizations are used to assist operators to locate spot welds more easily. The SAR approach does not require additional special models in finding spot welds, but only needs knowledge of location of spot welds on the part. Our system allows operators becoming more effective and efficient to in performing proper inspections, by providing them the required information at the required time without the need to refer to paper-based manuals or computer terminals.