Augmented reality for enabling un- and under-trained individuals to complete specialty construction tasks

The construction industry is facing a severe labor shortage that is threatening the performance of projects around the world. Advanced technologies may be able to alleviate the effects of this labor cliff. Specifically, Augmented Reality (AR) has been shown to enhance the performance of current industry professionals completing different construction tasks and is also being explored as a learning tool for students and technicians alike. This research studies if AR can be used as a tool to enable untrained individuals to complete construction tasks. Three groups were identified for this research: construction professionals, construction students, and individuals with no construction experience. All three groups completed two construction tasks with AR, including the assembly of prefabricated electrical conduit and the layout of electrical devices in a room. The results show that all three groups completed the task in statistically similar times; however, the work of individuals with no construction experience had significantly lower accuracy during the electrical device layout task. These results suggest that construction companies may be able to leverage untrained individuals to perform certain construction tasks with AR, enabling trained and experienced professionals to focus on more challenging tasks.