Warehouse Augmented Reality Program (WARP): A Web Tool for Warehouse Design and Operation Education

In this paper, we introduce the Warehouse Augmented Reality Program (WARP), its functionality, practicality, and potential use cases in education. We build this application on the backbone of WebXR. Using this application programming interface (API), we create an interactive web tool that displays a life-sized warehouse in augmented reality (AR) in front of users that can be viewed on a smartphone or a tablet. AR is a technology that displays virtual objects in the real world on a digital device's screen, allowing users to interact with virtual objects and locations while moving about a real-world environment. This tool can enhance warehousing education by making it immersive and more interactive. In addition, the tool can make warehousing operations more efficient and warehouse design less costly. We highlight how our tool can be applicable and beneficial to education and industry. We demonstrate how this tool can be integrated into a problem-based learning (PBL) assignment about warehouse layout design and order picking. The PBL activity involves comparing two different warehouse layouts (fishbone and traditional) by completing a set of order picking tasks in AR warehouse environments. The task is to perform single item picking over thirty orders and comparing the average order picking time per layout. Then, we use the results of these human subject experiments for validating the realism of the warehouse layouts generated by the tool by comparing the empirical completion times with the analytical results from the literature. We also administer a system usability scale (SUS) survey and collect feedback from industry experts.