A marker-based mobile learning environment for a process plant

The Nomadic Use of a Plant Model (Nose) project defines an open framework specification for nomadic plant usages. The project implements a tool, called Simantics Mobile, which incorporates the functionality supporting a marker-based mobile learning system in a manufacturing and factory platform. In theory, Simantics Mobile extends the provision beyond the classic mobility and ubiquity (i.e. anytime and anywhere service). Its primary intention is rather to retrieve the right information at the right time and in the right place. The learning contents, including the plant-related information, are semantically described by a set of ontologies and systematically maintained in physical storages distributed across a process plant. The heterogeneous ontology domains are coherently interconnected, exchanging their knowledge by means of the protocols defined in the Simantics architecture. Based on an augmented reality (AR) technology, a marker-based recognition is exploited, invigorating an intuitive user interaction. A marker adds the certain contextual information to the equipments in a plant. They are visually detected by a mobile camera, and the learning content is subsequently displayed on a mobile screen, accordingly. This paper documents the works in the Nose project and discusses the feasibility of the marker-based m-learning provided by the Simantics Mobile. At the end of the paper, the pilot study carried out at Stora Enso Kvarnsveden, a paper mill in Sweden, is demonstrated, and the practicality of the first prototypical implementation of Simantics Mobile is also exhibited.