FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine 
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-24/12

Title and Subtitle: A Qualitative Review of Extended Reality-Enabled Remote Collaboration: Human Factors Considerations and Implications for NAS Maintenance Practices

Report Date: June 2023

Authors: B. Torrence, J. Durham, R. DiDomenica, I. Choi, B. Tanner

Abstract: Remote collaboration is a virtual maintenance support strategy that allows local technicians to virtually engage with remote experts anywhere at the time of need to receive procedural guidance and instruction. Remote collaboration could enable virtual maintenance strategies (remote assistance, virtual inspection, site surveys, and training) for the FAA’s Technical Operations organization and help optimize resources, such as travel costs and the time of local and remote workers. While audio and teleconferencing technologies have been found useful for remote collaboration, these traditional methods limit the way in which physically distanced teammates communicate and may not accurately reflect the collaborative behaviors that would occur in face-to-face maintenance environments. Extended reality (XR) technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR), can enhance the capabilities of collaborators through advanced visualization features and a shared visual perspective to improve the quality and efficiency of maintenance work. To understand how XR can support remote collaboration processes for maintenance, we conducted a literature on XR-enabled remote collaboration research. We identified 74 articles and reviewed each article to understand trends in the following areas: (a) device types of local and remote users, (b) interaction modes between local and remote users, (c) remote collaboration metrics, and (d) human factors issues and considerations. Findings from the literature and the implications of these results for future human factors studies and field evaluation work in Technical Operations are discussed.

Key Words: Remote collaboration, remote assist, maintenance, extended reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual reality, human factors

No. of Pages: 41