EVALUATION OF MARKER AND MARKERLESS AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) APPS IN ENHANCING LEARNING TOWARDS TRAINING FOR WELDING PROCESS

Welding plays an essential role in the development and fabrication of specific metals that must be joined perfectly. It is widely used all around the world and comes in handy in manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, and construction. Therefore, specialized workers are required for the welding process. Unfortunately, it is also a very dangerous process, and many accidents have been reported regarding welding-related injuries. Thus, this study aims to design and develop Augmented Reality apps as learning tools for welding processes and evaluate these AR app. The SOLIDWORKS, BLENDER and UNITY software were used in the design and development process of the AR apps. The evaluation of AR Apps was done by 20 students with Diploma in mechanical engineering part 3 from UITM’ Pulau Pinang. Results gathered showed that the average Task Completion Time (TCT) for the AR Marker group was better (28.37% lower) compared to the AR Markerless group. Moreover, participants also gave positive feedback on learning through both AR apps, which are more efficient in aspects of accuracy, performance, and stability. Therefore, the implementation of AR apps will benefit new users who experience new processes earlier before having actual processes or machines. Also, this new technology will be expanded and used in any field of study, including education and other industries.