Publications / 2019 Proceedings of the 36th ISARC, Banff, Canada

Using Serious Games in Virtual Reality for Automated Close Call and Contact Collision Analysis in Construction Safety

Olga Golovina, Caner Kazanci, Jochen Teizer and Markus König
Pages 967-974 (2019 Proceedings of the 36th ISARC, Banff, Canada, ISBN 978-952-69524-0-6, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

Injuries and fatalities resulting from workplace accidents remain a global concern within the construction industry. While education and training of personnel offer well known approaches for establishing a safe work environment, Serious Games in Virtual Reality (VR) is being increasingly investigated as a complementary approach for learning. They yet have to take full advantage of the inherent data that can be collected about players. This research presents a novel approach for the automated assessment of players’ data. The proposed method gathers and processes the data within a serious game for instant personalized feedback. The application focuses on close calls and contact collisions between construction workers and hazards like equipment, harmful substances, or restricted work zones. The results demonstrate the benefits and limitations of safety information previously unavailable, or very hard or impossible to collect. An outlook presents work ahead for practical implementation in existing risk management processes.

Keywords: accident investigation; close call; construction safety; equipment contact collisions; hazard; human-hazard interaction; risk prevention; serious game; situational awareness; virtual reality; workforce education; training