Benefits of virtual reality for occupational safety and health

All social accident insurance institutions may benefit from the expertise gathered in the SUTAVE team and laboratory of the IFA. Primary OSH objectives, such as conditional prevention, are promoted by the use of VR. In addition, VR permits:

• Pilot research for future developments
• Realistic and practicable solutions for the design of products, production processes and safety concepts
• Empirical review of the design of safety concepts for human-machine interaction
• Emphasizing critical processes of human information processing in the work system design studies
• Identification of cognitive ergonomic principles in product design and of requirements for safety and usability in product development
• Accident analysis, investigation and simulation to gain information about causal factors
• Improved planning in design projects, owing to the need for specifications to be drawn up for simulation studies
• Reduction in the material and personnel resources required for alternative field and laboratory studies