Despite the increasing degree of automation in industry, manual or semi-automated are commonly and inevitable for complex assembly tasks. The transformation to smart processes in manufacturing leads to a higher deployment of data-driven approaches to support the worker. Upcoming technologies in this context are oftentimes based on the gesture-recognition, − monitoring or – control. This contribution systematically reviews gesture or motion capturing technologies and the utilization of gesture data in the ergonomic assessment, gesture-based robot control strategies as well as the identification of COVID-19 symptoms. Subsequently, two applications are presented in detail. First, a holistic human-centric optimization method for line-balancing using a novel indicator – ErgoTakt – derived by motion capturing. ErgoTakt improves the legacy takt-time and helps to find an optimum between the ergonomic evaluation of an assembly station and the takt-time balancing. An optimization algorithm is developed to find the best-fitting solution by minimizing a function of the ergonomic RULA-score and the cycle time of each assembly workstation with respect to the workers’ ability. The second application is gesture-based robot-control. A cloud-based approach utilizing a generally accessible hand-tracking model embedded in a low-code IoT programming environment is shown.

In the context of urban production and sustainable reuse of existing buildings, a detailed planning of the later usage is indispensable. One approach is to enable large-scale AR simulation on site with a sufficient Level of Detail (LoD) and stability. To determine performance metrics, a technology-stack is created and presented that enables a realistic field experiment in an industrial environment (area of 1,314 m²) using Microsoft HoloLens 2. For the experiment, a 3D model was instantiated as often as possible up to the limit of system stability and in different LoDs (100% down to 10%). The result shows that it is feasible to represent 2.63 million polygons (equivalent to about 1,909 m³ of augmented space) on LOD-35%; LoD-100% is equivalent to 327.38 m³ and 1,284 million polygons. Polygonal density [polygons/m³] is introduced as new indicator for better comparability when using 3D models. Thus, it is possible to immersively visualize urban production planning processes in large-scale scenarios. This expands the functional planning space of Urban Production and overcomes previous technical limitations.

Currently, many sources predict increasing use of AR technology in the industrial environment. The task of immersive productive assistance systems is to provide information contextually to the industrial user. Therefore, it is essential to explore the factors and effects that influence the visibility and the corresponding quality of this information. Caused by the technical limitations of additive display technology and application conditions, this new approach has evaluated the immersive visibility of Landolt Rings in various greyscales against ambient illuminance levels on different industrial-like surfaces, coupled with and without a white virtual background. For this purpose, an empirical study in a within-subjects-design with full factorial experimental design (n=23) was conducted on Microsoft HoloLens 2 hardware. The mean values of the main effects indicate that visibility is significantly affected by ambient illuminance (best results at lower level), greyscale (best results at middle level) and virtual background (best results with background). In contrast, the choice of surface is shown to have no statistically significant effect on visibility, however it affects the response time. Additionally, cross-interactions of variables were analyzed and lead to a design recommendation for immersive industrial applications.

In the context of environmental protection, the construction industry plays a key role with significant CO₂ emissions from mineral-based construction materials. Recycling these materials is crucial, but the presence of hazardous substances, i.e., in older building materials, complicates this effort. To be able to legally introduce substances into a circular economy, reliable predictions within minimal possible time are necessary. This work introduces a machine learning approach for detecting trace quantities (≥0.06 wt%) of minerals, exemplified by siderite in calcium carbonate mixtures. The model, trained on 1680 X-ray powder diffraction datasets, provides dependable and fast predictions, eliminating the need for specialized expertise. While limitations exist in transferability to other mineral traces, the approach offers automation without expertise and a potential for real-world applications with minimal prediction time.

The results of the empirical study based on an AR Landolt C vision were examined to compare real and virtual visibility as a function of stimulus size on an HMD (e.g. MS HoloLens 2). A counterbalanced within-subject-design study with n = 32 probands was conducted. The results show on one hand a visibility loss between real and immersive systems by the same size of representation. On the other hand, a transfer function can be derived to ensure comparable visibility between the systems. This transfer function can be used to compensate for the visibility loss as a design guideline for immersive applications. In approximation, the Weber-Fechner's relation can be applied on AR visibility versus size of stimuli.