Evaluation of interactive collaboration for 3D spacecraft development in Augmented Reality

Abstract

Planning and designing spacecrafts is a complex process. It requires experts of different domains to collaborate together. At the end of the design process, a configuration engineer has to create a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) sketch of the spacecraft. This has to be revised often due to conflicts between requirements of spacecraft components. Thus, communication is crucial for understanding each discipline’s requirements. At German Aerospace Center (DLR), a room especially designed for collaborative spacecraft engineering exists called Concurrent Engineering Facility (CEF). In order to support the communication, 3D visualization is already used in the CEF, but also in general in the industry. Recent Augmented Reality (AR) headsets like the Microsoft HoloLens 2 offer natural interaction with 3D holograms placed in the user’s real environment. The aim is to support interdisciplinary communication by connecting multiple Microsoft HoloLens 2 devices over network to enable real-time collaboration on an interactive 3D visualization of a spacecraft in a shared environment. For that, a prototype is implemented that fetches visualization data from the DLR’s data model for spacecraft development Virtual Satellite 4. It allows manipulating individual spacecraft parts with handgestures. In addition, multiple devices can be connected in a network session via the network library NetMQ 4. To evaluate the prototype’s usability, potential usefulness and ability to resolve interdisciplinary conflicts between requirements, a user study is conducted in the CEF. The results show that the prototype is user-friendly in general and that its tools are useful. However, its relevance for solving interdisciplinary conflicts during the spacecraft configuration process is controversial. Furthermore, the communication between users wearing a HoloLens 2 which runs the application is good. Also, its potential usefulness in the CEF in general as well as acceptance of such technology is given.