Defect Annotation on Objects Using a Laser Remote Conrol

In manufacturing, annotating defects for later correction is tedious and still not yet standardized. This task cannot be automated in the foreseeable future since finding and assessing the severity of defects is even for human workers a challenging task. As in the production of car body panels, the manufactured parts are often checked for dents or scratches. Defect slippage is cost-intensive. Therefore, thorough documentation is beneficial. Most manufacturers use direct defect annotation with a grease pencil, coarse masks on a computer or handheld, paper checklists, or simple ‘not OK’ labels on the parts for later inspection and repair. Since no accurate digital documentation of defects is available, defect slippage rates due to workers overlooking annotations are high. Moreover, the required attention shift between the part itself to a representation on a paper or computer screen and vice versa introduces inaccuracies, defect misses and is time consuming. In this contribution, a novel remote control pointing device for defect annotation on objects is proposed. A pilot study was conducted in which the accuracy, user experience and task load were evaluated against a tablet based input method. The results show an average accuracy of 1.5 cm versus 5.1 cm with the novel input method and an overall better and lower task load and user experience.