SAVES: An augmented virtuality strategy for training construction hazard recognition

Although the ratio of injuries and fatalities have decreased since 2009, their high rates still makes construction to be one of the top hazardous industries. OSHA and many companies that treat safety as their core value have stated repeatedly their strong desire for novel methods that speed up safety improvements. Improving the capability of hazard recognition in construction work frequently is identified as the first step toward building all other safety procedures. Without sufficient awareness and proper training on hazard recognition, even the best safety programs would not touch their desired expectations. Also, there is a need to understand better how different safety programs can maximize hazard recognition skills in workers. In response to these urgent needs, this paper explores a new training strategy for improving hazard recognition capability of construction workers. An augmented virtuality (AV) environment named SAVES (system for augmented virtuality environment safety) was developed and tested. SAVES integrates BIM with photographs of typical energy sources on a jobsite, allowing trainees to navigate and explore the built-in augmented training scenarios. This paper presents the model development and the implementation results, to validate how such an AV method can be designed to improve the capability of hazard recognition. The modeling process, analysis, and the lessons learned are discussed in detail.