Using Mixed Reality in Intralogistics - Are we ready yet?

The Industry 4.0 vision proposes a seamless integration of several modern concepts and technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, or robotics, to capture and contextualize data to improve the manufacturing processes. In this respect, Industry 4.0 is all about information and connectivity. Mixed reality (MR) takes the data collected by IoT systems and helps workers by visualizing contextualized data in real time. Human-Computer Interaction research has shown that MR can be advantageous in various application scenarios. However, there is a gap between research and practice when it comes to real world scenarios. So the question arises whether MR is already suitable for efficiently supporting employees in their daily work in industrial settings. To answer this question, we examined two maintenance scenarios in the field of intralogistics: (i) the maintenance of roller conveyors and (ii) the alignments of containers in shuttle warehouses using the Microsoft HoloLens. This paper (i) describes the scenarios and the specific challenges they pose, (ii) presents the prototypes that have been developed, and (iii) discusses the results of user studies that have been conducted to evaluate the practical applicability by presenting inhibiting and facilitating factors. In summary, although MR technology itself seems to be very promising in the scenarios presented, further research on hardware ergonomics and intuitive interaction design is needed.