Congratulations to ARM Hub industrial designer Anthony Franze on winning the 2023 Young CAADRIA Award (YCA)!
CAADRIA is the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia. The YCA is for PhD candidates who are lead authors of a submitted conference paper. It aims to encourage and promote early career researchers.
As a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) PhD student and the lead author, Anthony received the award for the paper, Informing User-Centred Approaches To Augmented Custom Manufacturing Practices.
“I am delighted that our paper has received recognition, underscoring our research topic’s national and international significance within the academic community,” Anthony said.
“Our paper also highlights the importance of collaboration between academia and industry to support small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses adopting emergent technologies, such as AR/MR. By doing so, improving their Industry 4.0 competitiveness, and enhancing the work lives of their valued fabrication staff.
“Winning the YCA award presents a unique opportunity to invite further discussions, research, and collaboration with manufacturers, academics, and industry professionals to progress the sector.”
The paper was submitted to the CAADRIA 2023 Human-Centric Conference at Cept University, India, from 18-24 March 2023.
Anthony’s co-authors were:
- Associate Professor Glenda Caldwell
- Dr Müge Belek Fialho Teixeira
- Associate Professor Markus Rittenbruch.
The papers are judged on their merit, contribution, relevance to CAADRIA, and demonstrated the depth of research interest.
The paper is available here and the abstract is below.
Abstract
This practice-based research presents insights into the potential and challenges for augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) technology to enhance Australian small-to-medium (SME) custom manufacturers’ agility to overcome existing Industry 4.0 (I4.0) workforce productivity and efficiency challenges. Moreover, it seeks to understand the technology’s ability to support custom manufacturers and the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) sector transition to a more human-centric Industry 5.0 (I5.0) model, whereby the well-being of the fabricator is placed back at the centre of manufacturing processes. This qualitative study draws on interviews with eleven Australian custom manufacturing industry professionals to inform pertinent themes around fabricators’ current use and perceptions of mixed reality technology. Results indicate benefits for fabricators in reducing 2D drawing and task-related ambiguities in fabrication and assembly practices and reveal factors surrounding underutilisation. Synthesising insights and reflecting on Teixeira et al., (2021) ‘s XR-PACT framework, key research areas are identified for future AR/MR development centred on fabrication users’ distinct needs to improve accessibility, empower fabricators and ultimately assist the competitiveness of custom manufacturers and the AEC sector.