HUMAN-INFRASTRUCTURE INTERFACES (HII) ENABLED USING AUGMENTED REALITY (AR)

The modern industrial society is built upon the productivity of advanced computing and agile machines assisting the human workforce to perform their tasks more effectively, accurately and efficiently. The industrial revolution termed as Industry 4.0 is based on the intelligence of machines working with humans in a collaborative work-space. Contrarily, infrastructure management has relied on the human for making day to day decisions. New emerging technologies can assist during infrastructure inspections, to quantify structural condition with more objective data. However, today\u27s’ owners agree in trusting the inspector\u27s decision in the field over data collected with sensors. If data collected in the field would be accessible during the inspections, the inspector decisions would be improved with sensors. New research opportunities in the human-infrastructure interface would allow researchers to improve the human awareness of their surrounding environment during inspections. This MS thesis studies the role of Augmented Reality (AR) and sensor technology as tools to increase human awareness of infrastructure. The domains of interest of this research include both inspections and emergency scenarios where humans need fast information about their environment to save lives. The results of vi this MS thesis research are the design, programming, and validation of two applications using AR headsets: AR-QR code scanning and AR-sensor connection. The two new programs facilitate the interface of humans with infrastructure, laying out a new scenario for technology enabling new research, tools, and test-beds for human-infrastructure interface research. The results of this MS thesis lay the foundation for future growth in the area of machine-assisted human-centered structure inspections, emergency management and human-machine collaboration using AR