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WinspectWhile the maintenance of industrial plants is a major prerequisite for efficient industrial production processes it is also a substantial expense factor. The main objective of the WinSpect project is to enhance the productivity and quality of all relevant maintenance processes. Mobile, wearable computers, i.e. computers that people wear like clothes on their body, allow for hands-free operation in maintenance and repair use cases, thus providing a great potential for improving productivity in this application area. In the context of the WinSpect project the TZI is developing an information technology infrastructure that allows to enhance maintenance processes with respect to economical as well as usability-related criteria. The foundation of this optimization is a computer-aided process model for the control loop of maintenance and repair activities. As a technical basis wearable computers are deployed that have access to existing IT-infrastructures via wireless local area networks. Stahlwerke Bremen, TZI's project partner, is going to deploy WinSpect technology for maintenance of steel cranes. The deployment of mobile, wearable computers allows for random access to planning and technical data directly at the location of inspection activities. Especially the inspection of cranes during normal operation requires the maintenance personnel to have both hands free because of safety concerns. This is one reason why conventional computing technology providing automated data gathering and evaluation on-site has been difficult to deploy in this particular application area. Wearable computing is a new technology that allows for effective on-site support of maintenance activities in several interesting ways. By enhancing the deployment of information technology wearable computing creates new fields of application for smart software solutions such as intelligent sensing and wireless multimedia systems. TZI is developing dedicated concepts and technologies for the deployment of wearable computing for maintenance applications:
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