Assessing the Readiness of Augmented Reality for Industrial Assembly: A Deployment Study Comparing Immersive and Non-Immersive Solutions

Integrating augmented reality (AR) into industrial assembly processes has great potential, yet most studies use simplified lab tasks and rarely benchmark AR against commercial systems, limiting their industrial relevance. To address this gap, we present a comparative study of immersive AR and non-immersive touchscreen-based assembly support systems on a manufacturing shop floor, with 16 participants assembling two industry-grade assets of different complexity. The results reveal that while AR's immersive capabilities excelled in spatial guidance for complex tasks, the simplicity and reliability of the touchscreen interface proved more effective for simple assemblies. We derive three design implications for deployment practice.