title: Automotive technicians' training as a community-of-practice: implications for the design of an augmented reality teaching aid.
abstract: The paper presents an ergonomic analysis carried out in the early phases of an R&D project. The purpose was to investigate the functioning of today's Automotive Service Technicians (ASTs) training in order to inform the design of an Augmented Reality (AR) teaching aid. The first part of the paper presents a literature review of some major problems encountered by ASTs today. The benefits of AR as technological aid are also introduced. Then, the methodology and the results of two case studies are presented. The first study is based on interviews with trainers and trainees; the second one on observations in real training settings. The results support the assumption that today's ASTs' training could be regarded as a community-of-practice (CoP). Therefore, AR could be useful as a collaboration tool, offering a shared virtual representation of real vehicle's parts, which are normally invisible unless dismantled (e.g. the parts of a hydraulic automatic transmission). We conclude on the methods and the technologies to support the automotive CoP.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Applied Research on Software Intensive Technologies, French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA-LIST), 18, route du Panorama, BP6, 92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses Cedex, France. margarita.anastassova@cea.fr
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anastassova
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Burkhardt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001336:Automobiles; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D013672:Technology; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D017132:Workplace; D055815:Young Adult