Support component reusability by integrating augmented reality and product lifecycle management

Abstract: In an ever changing market that expands continuously and where innovations cycles become shorter, there is an important increase of the renewal frequency of the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and vehicles. This makes the manufacture of EEE and vehicles a fast-growing source of waste in terms of used products. The immense amount of information generated by all these technological products which are currently in the market must be managed throughout the whole life cycle of the products. The problem is to provide information about the technological product’s reusability in the recycling process given the colossal complexity of many products and the lifespan of operation. This includes instructions about the components qualifications as elements in a new product. Technologies such as augmented reality (AR) combined with product lifecycle management (PLM) systems can provide the platform for an information system that provides the necessary information and support for the decommissioning process of EEE and vehicles at the end of their life cycle. The present project describes the framework of integration between AR and PLM with the purpose of recycling a technological product at the end of its life cycle. The proposed method of integration could be considered to constitute both an innovation and a possible improvement if compared with the current approach. It is believed that the development of a method that addresses the issue of integration between AR and PLM could provide with a secure, efficient management of stored data related to various products and their properties related to the recycling process at the end-of-life of the product. The result of this approach is an AR-PLM system architecture which assists the circular economy’s recycling process by the use of visual information superimposed on the physical technological equipment.