Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) can provide better user experience of real time interaction. This technology can be used to support different engineering applications, such as construction, manufacturing and inspection. However, AR engineering applications have to overcome many challenges such as tracking and visulazation. In addition, outdoor mobile AR engineering applications bring in more issues, such as scalable tracking, mobility, etc. Furthermore, engineering constraints and reasonable user interaction in practice need to be considered and integrated. In this research, we describe a new approach to simulate construction activities in outdoor environment using AR for multi-user collaboration. This approach intergrates several tracking techniques to suit the requirements of mobile outdoor AR systems. We also describe and evaluate system design challenges and possible solutions for simulating multi-user collaborative construction activities within a distributed AR environment. These challenges include tracking and registration, dynamic object modeling and constraints and user interaction. The proposed approach is demonstrated by developing a prototype system which integrates a head-mounted display, a GPS receiver, a 3D motion sensor, and a portable computer to carry out a construction simulation which can be run in the outdoors. The prototype system is implemented in Java language. The results of the case study are discussed to evaluate the usefulness of the proposed approach.