Supporting Remote Maintenance in Industry 4.0 through Augmented Reality

Abstract Due to the Industry 4.0 initiative, Augmented Reality (AR) has started to be considered one of the most interesting technologies companies should invest in, especially to improve their maintenance services. Several technological limitations have prevented AR to become an effective industrial tool in the past. Now some of them have been overcome, some others not yet by off-the-shelf technologies. In this paper, we present a solution for remote maintenance based on off-the-shelf mobile and AR technologies. The architecture of the application allows us to remotely connect a skilled operator in a control room with an unskilled one located where the maintenance task has to be performed. This application, which has been initially described in a previous work, has been improved on the basis of feedback received by industrial partners. We describe the important features we have added and the rationale behind them to make the remote communication more effective

Nutritional characterization and shelf-life of packaged microgreens

Comprehensive nutritional profile of six microgreens, including proximate composition and bioactive compounds

Towards the Evaluation of Augmented Reality in the Metaverse: Information Presentation Modes

In the future, many activities will be carried out in the Metaverse: hybrid offices and video-based education are just some examples. The way research is carried out could change, too. In this context, this work investigates the possibility of simulating Augmented Reality (AR) user studies on information presentation in a virtual environment. Organizing an industrial setup is complex; thus, most studies are executed in laboratories. However, lab experiments present limitations, e.g., the number and variety of participants and the availability of facilities. User studies may also be carried out by exploiting simulated AR, as an initial step for the Metaverse, where people are connected regardless of their location. This alternative could be used to carry out experiments on AR information presentation to solve common issues, such as the lack of physical equipment to perform component location tasks and the long time required to collect a large sample of users. Indeed, researchers could propose CAD models with information that simulates the same visual realism achieved with true AR. Moreover, multiple tests could be conducted in parallel by not relying on a limited amount of physical equipment per user. In this work, we developed and evaluated a desktop-simulated testing environment (DSTE) to conduct AR information presentation experiments remotely. We applied it in a pilot user study, revealing that the proposed DSTE was effective for the related research goals. Furthermore, 40 participants reported a positive user experience. The evaluation confirms that using a DSTE is promising for collecting and analyzing data from a wide range of people

Towards the Evaluation of Augmented Reality in the Metaverse: Information Presentation Modes

In the future, many activities will be carried out in the Metaverse: hybrid offices and video-based education are just some examples. The way research is carried out could change, too. In this context, this work investigates the possibility of simulating Augmented Reality (AR) user studies on information presentation in a virtual environment. Organizing an industrial setup is complex; thus, most studies are executed in laboratories. However, lab experiments present limitations, e.g., the number and variety of participants and the availability of facilities. User studies may also be carried out by exploiting simulated AR, as an initial step for the Metaverse, where people are connected regardless of their location. This alternative could be used to carry out experiments on AR information presentation to solve common issues, such as the lack of physical equipment to perform component location tasks and the long time required to collect a large sample of users. Indeed, researchers could propose CAD models with information that simulates the same visual realism achieved with true AR. Moreover, multiple tests could be conducted in parallel by not relying on a limited amount of physical equipment per user. In this work, we developed and evaluated a desktop-simulated testing environment (DSTE) to conduct AR information presentation experiments remotely. We applied it in a pilot user study, revealing that the proposed DSTE was effective for the related research goals. Furthermore, 40 participants reported a positive user experience. The evaluation confirms that using a DSTE is promising for collecting and analyzing data from a wide range of people

Application of natural and synthetic zeolites in the oenological field

Zeolites are crystalline hydrated aluminosilicates, of natural or synthetic origin, characterized by a microporous structure and high adsorption properties. They are employed as soil amendments and fertilizer carriers in agriculture, as catalysts, detergents, adsorbents and molecular sieves in many chemical processes, as well as in water and soil decontamination, and in food processing. They have been also tested in the oenological field for several potential applications; yet an overview on such topic is not still available. The present review summarizes the recent and innovative applications of zeolites in winemaking and supplies a critical discussion about their potential to prevent protein haze, tartrate instability or the appearance of certain defects, like light-struck offflavour and earthy off-flavours. Further applications of these minerals in the management of winery wastes and in the analytical field are also reviewed. The outcomes of this work evidenced the need of further research on the use of zeolites in oenology for better exploiting their peculiar sorption and exchange properties, selecting the most efficient natural types and improving the performances of the synthetic ones, without disregarding the potential secondary effects of these treatments on wine quality

Converting maintenance actions into standard symbols for Augmented Reality applications in Industry 4.0

The evolution of technical documentation in the age of Industry 4.0 is going towards the use of visual manuals, in particular exploiting Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Traditional manuals are rich of text instructions that in AR applications are not advisable. In fact, text occludes the real scene behind and it is an issue for the translation. For this reason, we propose to create and adopt a controlled and exhaustive vocabulary of graphical symbols, to be used in AR to represent maintenance instructions. In particular, in this work, we identified the most frequent maintenance actions used in manuals, and converted them into graphical symbols. Then, we made an elicitation of the symbols designed and created different candidate vocabularies of symbols basing on the criteria found in literature of guessability and homogeneity. Moreover, the vocabularies had to respect two constraints: conflict set and reversibility. Finally, we identified the best of symbols and integrated this one in a real AR application for remote maintenance