Addressing On-The Field Co-registration for AR Assisted Maintenance Operations: The AURORA Project

In the context of Augmented Reality-based guidance to assembling and servicing operations of complex mission-critical equipment, consistency of co-registration between visual aids and physical components through different sessions is paramount and should be guaranteed even in case the real object has been moved from its original location. However, solutions based on optical markers or automatically selected visual features could result either impracticable or not suitable for current visors’ computing power. The AURORA (AUgmented Reality Operations for Repair and mAintenance) project aims to enhance the execution of Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) tasks by presenting explanatory information directly within the technician's field of view. It is designed to run on an Extended Reality (XR) headset with video see-through capabilities and local processing power, enabling maximum mobility without dependence on a host computer. The proposed approach provides a simple yet reliable way to co-register visual aids to technical equipment produced by Leonardo S.p.A. through a simple procedure exploiting solely the built-in tracking capability of latest generation visors such as the Meta Quest 3. This allows users to define correlation points between the real world (as viewed through the headset) and the procedural steps, along with the accompanying guidance. Additionally, AURORA can handle non-linear procedure including jumps, loops and decision points, offering flexibility in task execution.