Towards a griddable distributed manufacturing system with augmented reality interfaces

Rapidly changing demand and mass customization require highly flexible and adaptive manufacturing systems. Manufacturing operations have evolved in order to keep up by organizing themselves into smaller units of specialized production processes that are combined in different ways to create different products. Human workers are integral in the manufacturing systems and they too must be flexible and adaptive. This paper describes an augmented reality manufacturing system that aims to greatly improve the information perception of the different types of workers in a manufacturing facility and to make interaction with manufacturing software natural and efficient. In this approach, traditionally paper-based and computer-based tasks are augmented to the workers' interactions in the environment. The system is distributed and modular as the different functions of CAD/CAM software are provided by individual physical or virtual objects in the environment or by a combination of them working cooperatively. This modularity allows the individual resources and facilities to be linked via internet onto a manufacturing grid with universally-accessible augmented reality interfaces to their services. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.