Short title: MRBC4I

Long title: Mixed Reality Based Collaboration for Industry

Duration: September 2018 - März 2021

Abstract:

Mixed reality (both virtual reality and augmented reality) technologies and applications have become increasingly important in recent years. Nevertheless, from a technical, organizational and psychological point of view, there are still some challenges for industrial use in real operations - this is also evidenced by the well-known Hype Cycle from Gartner, which currently still sees the technology in the "Trough of Disillusionment".  The products currently available in the area of Mixed Reality must be regarded as stand-alone solutions and are also only suitable to a limited extent for widespread use under industrial conditions.

The MRBC4I project aims to take the Austrian industry a decisive step forward by implementing the following main objectives:

1) Reduction of entry barriers (technical, organizational, psychological)

2) The reduction of the effort and thus also the costs for the companies ("enabling")

3) Impact analyses of business processes and models, stakeholder acceptance analyses as well as readyness (maturity) analyses

In the project, 24 use cases on the topic of Mixed Reality are implemented at and with corporate partners. The use cases are distributed across 4 thematic streams:

• Production support
• Remote Support
• Education and training
• Presentation of products

The interdisciplinary cooperation of the research partners enables the optimal bundling of extensive competences and expertise of the respective research area. Our research group is engaged in the accompanying research together with the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems and the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten. The goal of the work package is to answer the following question regarding impact analyses of business processes and models, stakeholder acceptance analyses as well as readiness analyses: "How can mixed reality assistance systems be evaluated multi-criterially?"

Results:

As part of the project, 21 augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) use cases were created and evaluated. Our contribution to the project was the development of an evaluation model to analyze the impact of AR/VR.

The evaluation was divided into the company and the user perspective. On the company side, criteria such as costs, lead times, productivity and quality were considered. The assessments of the company experts were obtained in semi-structured interviews and scientifically processed.

Human-centered criteria such as user acceptance, usability or workload were collected and evaluated in user tests with direct users in the companies and students by means of questionnaires.

Results in the production environment show an average reduction in process and cycle time of 31 and 25 percent, respectively. The process quality indicators improved by 1.9 ranks (on a Likert scale of 1 to 5) compared to the average baseline situation. The use cases performed very well in terms of user acceptance. Task load and ease of use ratings showed no differences between age groups, with users scoring higher than students. Overall, the methodology, application procedures, and tools proved to be well suited for a multicriteria evaluation to assess AR/VR implementations in a balanced way.

Publications:

• Lovasz-Bukvova, H., Hölzl, M., Zigart, T., Kormann-Hainzl, G., Schlund, S. (2021). Usability and task load of applications in Augmented and Virtual Reality, How applicable are the technologies in corporate settings?, EuroSPI European System, Software & Service Process Improvement & Innovation
• Zigart, T., Kormann-Hainzl, G., Lovasz-Bukvova, H., Hölzl, M., Moser, T., Schlund, S. (2021). Application of a Multi-Criteria Evaluation Model for Augmented and Virtual Reality Use Cases in Manufacturing (in progress)

Partners:

Research Institutions:

• Fachhochschule St. Pölten
• FOTEC Forschungs- und Technologietransfer GmbH
• Fachhochschule Oberösterreich
• IMC Fachhochschule Krems
• Technische Universität Wien

Corporate partners:

• Bene GmbH
• Bilfinger Chemserv GmbH
• CODEFLÜGEL Ziviltechnikergesellschaft mbH
• Jabil Circuit Austria GmbH
• KBA-MÖDLING GmbH
• Knorr-Bremse GmbH
• KOTÁNYI GmbH
• Kremsmüller Industrieanlagenbau KG
• LENZE Operations Austria GmbH
• MAN Truck & Bus Österreich GesmbH
• Mayr-Melnhof Karton Aktiengesellschaft
• MBIT DIGITAL SOLUTIONS
• ÖBB-Business Competence Center GmbH
• Piesslinger GmbH
• Prometa GmbH
• ROTES KREUZ, Landeverband NÖ
• SEMPERIT
• TEST-FUCHS GmbH
• Umdasch Group Ventures GmbH
• Voith Paper Rolls GmbH & Co KG
• Wittmann Battenfeld GmBH

Contact:

Thomas Holzmann, opens an external URL in a new window (ecoplus. Niederösterreichs Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH)

Thomas Moser, opens an external URL in a new window (FH St. Pölten)

Dipl.-Ing. Tanja Zigart

Telefon: +43 1 58801 33053
E-Mail: tanja.zigart@tuwien.ac.at