Automotive technicians' training as a community-of-practice: implications for the design of an augmented reality teaching aid.

The paper presents an ergonomic analysis carried out in the early phases of an R&D project. The purpose was to investigate the functioning of today's Automotive Service Technicians (ASTs) training in order to inform the design of an Augmented Reality (AR) teaching aid. The first part of the paper presents a literature review of some major problems encountered by ASTs today. The benefits of AR as technological aid are also introduced. Then, the methodology and the results of two case studies are presented. The first study is based on interviews with trainers and trainees; the second one on observations in real training settings. The results support the assumption that today's ASTs' training could be regarded as a community-of-practice (CoP). Therefore, AR could be useful as a collaboration tool, offering a shared virtual representation of real vehicle's parts, which are normally invisible unless dismantled (e.g. the parts of a hydraulic automatic transmission). We conclude on the methods and the technologies to support the automotive CoP.

[1]  T. P. Caudell,et al.  Augmented reality: an application of heads-up display technology to manual manufacturing processes , 1992, Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[2]  Brett E. Shelton,et al.  Using augmented reality for teaching Earth-Sun relationships to undergraduate geography students , 2002, The First IEEE International Workshop Agumented Reality Toolkit,.

[3]  Jesper Kjeldskov,et al.  Human-Computer Interaction Design for Emerging Technologies: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mobile Computer Systems , 2003 .

[4]  Michael J. Smith,et al.  Usability evaluation and interface design : cognitive engineering, intelligent agents and virtual reality , 2001 .

[5]  J. Cooperstock.  The Classroom of the Future : Enhancing Education through Augmented Reality , 2001 .

[6]  M. Brian Blake,et al.  Mobile Augmented Reality System Architecture for Ubiquitous e-Learning , 2006, 2006 Fourth IEEE International Workshop on Wireless, Mobile and Ubiquitous Technology in Education (WMTE'06).

[7]  S. Barley.  Technicians in the Workplace: Ethnographic Evidence for Bringing Work into Organizational Studies , 1996 .

[8]  John R. Wilson,et al.  Virtual and interactive environments for work of the future , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[9]  L. Sibson,et al.  Practice nurses as mentors for student nurses: An untapped educational resource? , 2003, Nurse education in practice.

[10]  Olaf Oehme,et al.  Augmented Reality (AR) for Assembly Processes Design and Experimental Evaluation , 2003, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[11]  Morten Fjeld,et al.  Augmented Chemistry: An Interactive Educational Workbench , 2002, ISMAR.

[12]  C. H. Edwards.  Applied ergonomics. , 1990, Work.

[13]  Roman Obermaisser,et al.  The diagnostic architecture of the PEGASUS project car , 2005, Third International Workshop on Intelligent Solutions in Embedded Systems, 2005..

[14]  Margarita Anastassova.  L'analyse ergonomique des besoins en amont de la conception de technologies émergente: le cas de la Réalité Augmentée pour la formation à la maintenance automobile , 2006 .

[15]  Ulrich Neumann,et al.  Cognitive, performance, and systems issues for augmented reality applications in manufacturing and maintenance , 1998, Proceedings. IEEE 1998 Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium (Cat. No.98CB36180).

[16]  Andrew May,et al.  A case study of virtual team working in the European automotive industry , 2001 .

[17]  Dieter Schmalstieg,et al.  The Studierstube Augmented Reality Project , 2002, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[18]  Jean-Marie Bouroche,et al.  Analyse des données multidimensionnelles , 1977 .

[19]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[20]  Pierre Falzon,et al.  The development of collective reliability: a study of therapeutic decision-making , 2008 .

[21]  Holger Regenbrecht,et al.  Using Augmented Virtuality for Remote Collaboration , 2004, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[22]  S. Barab,et al.  Designing System Dualities: Characterizing a Web-Supported Professional Development Community , 2003 .

[23]  Wolff-Michael Rolf.  Knowledge Diffusion in a Grade 4-5 Classroom during a Unit on Civil Engineering: An Analysis of a Classroom Community in Terms of Its Changing Resources and Practices. , 1996 .

[24]  P. Dieppe,et al.  Using expert patients' narratives as an educational resource. , 2005, Patient education and counseling.

[25]  Marek Hatala,et al.  A methodological approach to supporting organizational learning , 2002, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[26]  Jean-Marie Burkhardt,et al.  L'ergonomie de la réalité augmentée pour l'apprentissage : une revue , 2007 .

[27]  Margarita Anastassova,et al.  Results from a user-centred critical incidents study for guiding future implementation of augmented reality in automotive maintenance , 2005 .

[28]  Kristine Nagel,et al.  Understanding the design space of referencing in collaborative augmented reality environments , 2007, GI '07.

[29]  Alex W. Stedmon,et al.  Re-viewing reality: human factors of synthetic training environments , 2001, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[30]  Sasha A. Barab,et al.  Guest Editors' Introduction: Rethinking Methodology in the Learning Sciences , 2001 .

[31]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data , 1984 .

[32]  Christophe Caux,et al.  A continuous simulation approach for supply chains in the automotive industry , 2007, Simul. Model. Pract. Theory.

[33]  Joseph Barkai.  Vehicle Diagnostics - Are You Ready for the Challenge? , 2001 .