Collaborative Maintenance Training in Mixed Reality Environments

A PhD project with the University of Birmingham’s Human Interface Technologies Team (www.birmingham.ac.uk/hit-team and http://tinyurl.com/hitteamuob) building upon existing research programmes evaluating novel human-system interaction technologies in the field of Mixed Reality for such applications as advanced command and control, future cockpit design, medical rescue team training and the supervision of unmanned systems . In particular, the Team’s current research projects are beginning to address the use of Mixed Reality environments for co-located and remote collaborative maintenance training (for aircraft or land vehicles), investigating how novel approaches to inter-personal communication, spatial understanding, multi-axis manipulation and problem-solving can be improved by the appropriate “blending” of interactive media, coupled with face-to-face interaction between novices and local/remote specialists. Specifically the research will:

• Investigate, from both a technological and human-centred design perspective, how to exploit Augmented / Mixed Reality systems in a Workshop Environment to enable information about vehicles to be accessed on-demand using appropriate wearable and portable devices.
• Investigate remote collaboration between maintainers and lines of support.
• Investigate the use of vehicle recognition and Mixed Reality overlays with marker-less recognition.
• Investigate methods to update/input data into a back-end system based on work carried out.
• Investigate methods to overcome technology challenges in the workshop environment; e.g. poor data connectivity.

To find out more about studying for a PhD at the University of Birmingham, including full details of the research undertaken in the School, the funding opportunities available for your subject, and guidance on making your application, you can order a copy of our Doctoral Research Prospectus, at: www.birmingham.ac.uk/drp.