In this paper we present a concept for a combination of wearable computing and knowledge management with the goal to shorten the maintenance process in the aircraft industry. This research is part of an ongoing project which is carried out in cooperation with an aircraft company.

In this paper we present results from the realization of a wearable computing system with the goal to shorten the maintenance process in the aircraft industry. The project combines knowledge management with wearable computing to enable instant access to an electronic logbook, aircraft manuals, and experience knowledge. This research is part of an ongoing project which is carried out in cooperation with an aircraft company. The paper elaborates on user interface issues for a hybrid wearable/hand-held interface with an abstract representation to separate the application from any concrete UI. The semantic representation of maintenance data as well as clothing aspects are also addressed.

Abstract. In this paper we present a concept for a combination of wearable computing and knowledge management with the goal to shorten the maintenance process in the aircraft industry. This research is part of an ongoing project which is carried out in cooperation with an aircraft company. This paper describes the functions of the wearable devices as well as the conceptual realization. While the purpose of the project is to create a fully functional wearable system, this paper focuses on the following topics: (a) the use case and requirements as well as non-technical issues, (b) the additional aircraft infrastructure including a localization system, (c) the wearable computing hardware based on a commercial PDA with a custom input device, (d) an adaptive user interface for alternative usage of the PDA in handheld mode and wearable mode, and (e) a knowledge management system to store and navigate the aircraft’s product model and to organize experience knowledge. 1