Extended reality applications in industry 4.0. - A systematic literature review

Extended reality technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality represents a paradigm that enhances and supports industry 4.0 in diverse settings. To spread such a revolutionary environment, this systematic review focuses on analyzing extendend reality essence and application and reporting the assessment of 287 approaches gathered from 2011 to 2022, classified and characterized in the proposed taxonomy. Based on the sample of analyzed works, the results indicate that industry 4.0 has embraced the use of these technologies. Heterogeneous solution proposals in various fields of application and activities were found. Notwithstanding, the research articles report similar advantages and benefits (e.g., high performance on human tasks or robot collaboration, high-quality rates for specific products, among others). In addition, we present the most widespread equipment and devices that are currently preferred to develop extended reality applications, which allows us to identify hardware patterns commonly shared in a variety of fields. Whilst, with the aid of association rules, we reveal further insights among the items of the proposed taxonomy. Furthermore, we also present a thorough analysis of trends and research directions in the extended reality field for industry 4.0. Finally, from our results, we show that the accessibility and accelerated progress in technological devices, incorporating advanced algorithms, ergonomic features, built-in cameras, and sensors, have encouraged a massive adoption and extensive application development in a wide spectrum of industry 4.0 domains.