Effect of Augmented Reality Support on Quality Inspection of Welded Structures

With the increasing complexity of production systems and manufactured products, operators face high demands for professional expertise and long-term concentration. Augmented reality (AR) can support users in their work by displaying relevant virtual data in their field of view. In contrast to the extensive research on AR assistance in assembly, maintenance, and training, AR support in quality inspection has received less attention in the industrial context. Quality inspection is an essential part of industrial processes; thus, it is important to verify whether AR assistance can support users in these tasks. This work proposes an AR-based approach for quality inspection. For this, pilot AR software was designed and developed. The proposed AR approach was tested with end users. The task efficiency, the error rate, the perceived mental workload, and the usability of the AR approach were analysed and compared to the conventional paper-based support. The field research confirmed the positive effect on user efficiency during quality inspection while decreasing the perceived mental workload. This work extends the research on the potential of AR assistance in industrial applications and provides experimental validation to confirm the benefits of AR support on user performance during quality inspection tasks.