Wearable and interactive mixed reality solutions for fault diagnosis and assistance in manufacturing systems: Implementation and testing in an aseptic bottling line

Abstract Thanks to the spread of technologies stemming from the fourth industrial revolution, also the topic of fault diagnosis and assistance in industrial contexts has benefited. Indeed, several smart tools were developed for assisting with maintenance and troubleshooting, without interfering with operations and facilitating tasks. In line with that, the present manuscript aims at presenting a web smart solution with two possible applications installed on an Android smartphone and Microsoft HoloLens. The solution aims at alerting the operators when an alarm occurs on a machine through notifications, and then at providing the instructions needed for solving the alarm detected. The two devices were tested by the operators of an industrial aseptic bottling line consisting of five machines in real working conditions. The usability of both devices was positively rated by these users based on the System Usability Scale (SUS) and additional appropriate statements. Moreover, the in situ application brought out the main difficulties and interesting issues for the practical implementation of the solutions tested.