Dive brief:
- The University of Dayton in Ohio has secured an $850,000 National Science Foundation grant to create specific workplace safety training using augmented and virtual reality for workers in high-risk industries such as construction.
- The project will be divided into two phases, according to a statement from the university. First, the research team will create an environment where students experience a potential accident. Developers will then assess how well they recognize hazards and monitor workers’ physical behavior in the workplace.
- In order to evaluate safety improvements, the project will build a customized AR training system that uses images taken by students at their own workplaces to recognize site-specific hazards, according to Dayton’s NSF grants page. Using these photos, the team will create replicas of their workplaces that show simulated accidents caused by these hazards.
Diving knowledge:
Dayton is not alone in this endeavor: Researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas are also involved in the project, according to the release. They will share approximately $300,000 of the total prize money, leaving Dayton with a total of $546,000.
The key to the research lies in the belief that workers don’t learn as well in a classroom setting as they would in real-life situations, according to the grant page. The grant abstract states that “…conventional classroom lecture-based safety training methods rarely capture worker interest and do not reduce accidents.”
“Evidence strongly suggests that adults learn best in the context of their work environments and real-life situations,” said Namgyun Kim, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Dayton and project leader.
AR/VR training is not a new concept in the construction industry. It’s a big part of it construction struggle for workers in the midst of a historic labor crisis, and companies are putting it to good use. Pepper Construction won an award from the Associated General Contractors of America for its use of AR/VR safety training in 2021, which addressed the boredom of safety conferences.
The project’s estimated completion date is May 31, 2026, according to the NSF grant.
