assistME: A Platform for Assisting Engineers in Maintaining the Factory Pipeline

In this position paper, we present our approach of utilizing mobile devices (i.e., mobile phones and tablets) for assisting engineers and experts in understanding and maintaining the factory pipelines. For this, we present a platform, called assistME, that is composed of three main components: the assistME Server, the assistME mobile infrastructure, and the co-assistME collaborative environment. In order to get full utilization of the assistME platform, we assume that an initial setup is made in the factory in such a way that it is equipped with different sensors to collect data about specific events in the factory pipeline together with the corresponding locations of these events. The assistME Server works as a central control unit in the platform and collects data from the installed sensors in the factory pipeline. In the case of any unexpected behavior or any critical situation in the factory pipeline, notification and other details are sent to the related group of engineers and experts through the assistME mobile app. Further, the co-assistME collaborative environment, equipped with a large shared screen and multiple mobile devices, helps the engineers and experts to collaborate with to understand and analyze the current situation in the factory pipeline in order to maintain it accurately.
Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, MOBILEng/2014/02