Introducing a general-purpose augmented reality platform for the use in engineering education

Abstract

There is a lack of a universal Augmented Reality platform which can be used in manufacturing engineering and other education fields to display models, processes, animations and simulations alike. Such a platform has been developed as part of this contribution and enables instructors to manage online courses, teaching units and even entire study programs. To enhance the teaching in the classroom by using Augmented Reality visualizations, a new application has been developed, which runs on iOS as well as Android systems and displays the various objects along with additional information uploaded by the instructors. A novel storage format was devised which reduces the storage size of various models significantly wherefore performance on the phone's end is improved. Various common 3D file formats, such as STL, OFF and OBJ, can be imported and automatically converted to this new format. The same applies for results from FEM software Abaqus, MoldFlow and HyperXtrude. Results formatted to be analyzed by the popular pre-/post-processor GiD can also be uploaded at no additional expense. The users of the smartphone app can view, inspect and interact with the models and animations. The platform and app are designed for an easy-to-use setup by the educators and an intuitive use by the students.