A step toward the standardization of maintenance and training services in C4I military systems with Mixed Reality application

This paper is a review of the work presented at the 5th IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Aerospace, MetroAeroSpace 2018 (Piedimonte and Ullo, 2018) [1], enriched with some concepts on standardization for Mixed Reality applications. Nowadays, large organizations are looking for new procedures and configuration management in order to optimize operations for training and maintenance. The idea is to employ advanced techniques in order to handle budget constraints and reduction of human resources. At this aim, Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities are getting more and more exploited to support complex systems during their in-service phase. Nevertheless, the Mixed Reality has not formal standards available for the different application fields yet. This problem limits its utilization because it is not simple to deal with all the possible variations that can occur on the apparatus under maintenance or during a training process, which need to be suitably recorded and carried on. These themes are typically managed by the “Configuration Management” and are already harmonized in the norms, typically used in the discipline of the Integrated Logistic Support (ILS). Moreover, the new scenarios, where Virtual, Augmented or Mixed Realities are employed, lead to a maintenance “on condition”, rather than to an “established scheduled” maintenance. In this context, the traditional manuals for maintenance, which present a “constant visualization”, typically a.pdf-file, lose effectiveness. On the contrary, the manuals based on a “variable visualization”, such as the AeroSpace and Defense (ASD) S1000 D norm, integrated with logistic data based on ASD S 3000 L norm, offer a great competitive advantage. This paper aims to present first steps towards the standardization of Maintenance and Training Processes in Command Control Communications Computers and Intelligence (C4I) Military Systems of ITalian Air Force (ITAF) when Mixed Reality is applied. In order to understand the most suitable choice when the C4I systems are involved, ITAF is running a Proof of Concept (PoC) to evaluate and compare the different technologies based on Mixed Reality. It is worth to underline that the benefits of Augmented and Mixed Reality have been extended to other fields such as for instance: industrial, technical, social, medical, cultural, besides the military one. Therefore, the results of this paper and the efforts for implementing standardization procedures will be useful for exploitation actions in all application fields.