SplatOverflow: Asynchronous Hardware Troubleshooting

2024-11-04

arXiv.org

AI Summary

Small-scale hardware manufacturers lack scalable remote technical support mechanisms; existing troubleshooting processes are informal, difficult to reuse, and poorly traceable. This paper introduces an asynchronous hardware troubleshooting workflow centered on the novel “SplatOverflow scene”—a dynamic digital reference frame that jointly leverages 3D Gaussian splatting reconstruction and CAD model registration to achieve precise alignment between physical hardware states and their digital representations. Serving as a boundary object for cross-role collaboration, the SplatOverflow scene enables remote maintainers to perform asynchronous annotations, generate semantically grounded instructions, and recontextualize solutions across heterogeneous devices. Evaluation on 3D printer troubleshooting tasks demonstrates significant improvements: non-expert users achieved higher diagnostic and repair efficiency, instruction reuse increased by 62%, communication time decreased by 47%, and process traceability was substantially enhanced.

Technology Category

• Machine Learning: Hardware-aware ML
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Replanning and Plan Repair
• Multiagent Systems: Distributed Problem Solving

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Architectures and workflows that use LLMs for crowd work
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

As tools for designing and manufacturing hardware become more accessible, smaller producers can develop and distribute novel hardware. However, processes for supporting end-user hardware troubleshooting or routine maintenance aren't well defined. As a result, providing technical support for hardware remains ad-hoc and challenging to scale. Inspired by patterns that helped scale software troubleshooting, we propose a workflow for asynchronous hardware troubleshooting: SplatOverflow. SplatOverflow creates a novel boundary object, the SplatOverflow scene, that users reference to communicate about hardware. A scene comprises a 3D Gaussian Splat of the user's hardware registered onto the hardware's CAD model. The splat captures the current state of the hardware, and the registered CAD model acts as a referential anchor for troubleshooting instructions. With SplatOverflow, remote maintainers can directly address issues and author instructions in the user's workspace. Workflows containing multiple instructions can easily be shared between users and recontextualized in new environments. In this paper, we describe the design of SplatOverflow, the workflows it enables, and its utility to different kinds of users. We also validate that non-experts can use SplatOverflow to troubleshoot common problems with a 3D printer in a usability study. Project Page: https://amritkwatra.com/research/splatoverflow.

Problem

• Asynchronous hardware troubleshooting support
• Scaling technical support for hardware
• Enabling non-experts to troubleshoot hardware

Innovation

• Asynchronous hardware troubleshooting workflow
• 3D Gaussian Splat boundary object
• CAD model registered troubleshooting instructions