Design perspectives for the future of work in Industry 5.0 environment: the digital and physical space in Augmented Reality uses

The advent of Industry 4.0 has introduced into the manufacturing environment a new level of interconnection between machines, operations and sensors that have been able to automate entire processes. Along with this decentralization of the workforce, the new concept of Industry 5.0 aspires to elevate humans to the focal point of cognitive, physical and digital activities, by bringing advanced technologies that autonomously work beside humans in a human-centered perspective. This is proposed to go beyond the productive purpose by enhancing the experience and quality of work itself, generating questions about how design could intervene to foster effective communication (by limiting misunderstanding and conflict between the technology and the operator) especially in situations where digital and physical are blended. The object of study is the manipulation of the operator’s work environment through the use of Augmented Reality (AR), investigating how it can be integrated into the work experience in terms of performance and psychological response, with particular attention to the type of interface placed in the worker’s own spatial reality. After an overview of the use of eXtended Reality (XR) modes and how such technology can support human work, the focus will be placed on the category of Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR) aimed at operator training and assistance during production routine, which will then be analyzed from a design perspective involving reflections on how the discipline could intervene to enhance learning and use. These definitions point to raising the human factor above the task of assembly and the related operations, therefore the experience over the process, supporting the concept of human-centered manufacturing. From a design point of view, this becomes subject of exploration not only regarding the configuration of the interface itself, but how its functionality can be manipulated to make the experience engaging in terms of tasks to be performed and human cognitive response, to arrive at considerations derived from a literature review with observations about possible ways in which the figure of the designer could act in such a typically engineering context.