Toward a Full-Stack Framework for Industrial Augmented Reality: Benefits, Risks, and Design Considerations for Dependable Deployment in Manufacturing

Abstract

Industrial Augmented Reality (AR) has progressed from laboratory demonstrations to operational pilots across design, training, assembly, maintenance and quality assurance, yet broad, dependable deployment in manufacturing remains the exception. We synthesise existing evidence into a full-stack deployment framework structured along six distinct but coupled decision axes: (i) value and benefits, (ii) technical and integration constraints, (iii) human factors and safety, (iv) organisational and economic considerations, (v) data, security and privacy, and (vi) governance, ethics and long-term risk. Within each axis we separate (a)benefits, (b)failure modes and (c)design considerations, and cross-link them through a deployment checklist that engineering managers and vendors can apply when scoping projects. The contribution is conceptual and practice-oriented: a synthesis grounded in the literature and public deployment reports. We mark where the evidence base is mature (e.g. assembly task time, training efficacy), emerging (e.g. cognitive workload trade-offs, cobot safety zones), or speculative (e.g. metaverse-scale governance), and identify open questions whose resolution conditions the transition from demos to dependable infrastructure.