Review and Analysis of Augmented Reality (AR) literature for Digital Fabrication in Architecture

The use of Augmented Reality (AR) technologies has increased recently, due to the equipment update and the mature technology. For architectural design, especially in digital fabrication projects, more designers begin to integrate AR methods to achieve the visualization in the process. To help unskilled labors for holographic on-site previewing and instruction training, experimental and practice-based studies in AR for the architectural digital fabrication have emerged in recent years. Now, it is a great opportunity to discuss the topic of AR in architectural digital fabrication. By presenting a statistical review of AR technology in architecture projects, this literature review aims to review ongoing research and provide pathways for further research in architectural digital fabrication. This review article is based on information found in journal publications and conference papers in the fields of architecture, engineering, robotics, and digital fabrication, published to date (from 2010 to 2020). The review narrows the literature within these papers by filtering 84 articles through the keyword “Augmented Reality”, “Digital Fabrication” and “Assembly”. The selected articles can be categorized based on the most use of AR function in architectural digital fabrication into an order of the following three classifications with the most significant growth in the last years: (A) AR 3D holographic instruction, (B) AR data sharing, (C) AR for Human-Computer interaction. The information collected from these articles within their classifications is meant to give insight into the current state-of-the-art of AR in the architectural digital fabrication area, as well as to summarize how the topic has matured and developed over time in the research and industry literature. This article has not only analyzed the existing literature but also highlighted new emerging fields in AR research and the future trends of AR function in architectural digital fabrication