NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 COVER STORY
Pat O’Connor
(far right) and
the team at VRAI
are using VR to
improve health
& safety training
“From a health & safety
perspective, that means you can
now put in remote monitoring
for hazardous conditions so you
can prevent workers from going
into a dangerous environment
if, for example, there are things
like gas emissions or particulate
matter in the air, or a broken
piece of equipment that could
pose a risk.”
Technology also allows
managers to be more proactive
in ensuring health & safety
protocols are being adhered to.
Many factories will use nothing
more than a painted line on
the floor to divide people from
hazards such as moving forklifts
or machinery, relying on the
sensibilities of those on the
shopfloor to stay the right side
of the line (see box, p20), and
no way of knowing if a specific
member of staff is regularly
cutting a corner to be first in
the lunch queue.
However, Chandler explains
how a non-physical barrier called
a light curtain can be put in place
to monitor who crosses the line
and when. “If someone crosses
a light curtain, instead of just
relying on personal awareness
that they have done something
wrong, it can trigger an alarm,”
he says. “It could be something
as simple as vibrating a wearable
on that person’s wrist, or it
could immediately alert their
supervisor that a safety breach
has occurred. On the other
hand, if a piece of equipment is
about to cross the light curtain,
for whatever reason, it can be
immediately shut down and any
potential accident averted.”
Chandler recommends
treating people as part of the
factory system, as intrinsic
“We want to ensure that people
can carry out tasks safely, and
also perform optimally.”
Pat O’Connor, managing director, VRAI
“Could you imagine, on your first day at work,
being on a boat heading towards a 110-metre
high turbine, 100 miles off the coast of northern
Scotland, through waves as big as your house,”
says O’Connor. “And then, when you get there, you
have to climb to the top while the whole structure
is swaying three metres from side to side. Are you
really going to be focused on performing even the
most routine tasks to the best of your ability, or are
you going to be focused on self-preservation?”
In these high-stress situations, accidents are
almost inevitable. “We want to ensure that people
can carry out their tasks safely, and also perform
optimally,” continues O’Connor. “That means
recreating those environments virtually using data
to inform how we can improve the training further
down the line.”
Beyond the training room
Ultimately, though, even the best training is
no preparation for the real thing. Much like a
well-drilled football team coming unstuck by a
goalkeeping howler, there’s no accounting for
human error. While systems like HEAT are ideal
for training purposes, health & safety doesn’t
stop there. Once your well-trained operators
are unleashed onto the shopfloor, they need
to remain protected against any eventuality.
Shawn Chandler, senior member of the US-based
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE), the largest professional organisation in
the world, says that technology has a crucial role
to play in protecting those on the shopfloor. “The
Internet of Things is creating new opportunities
to have sensors everywhere,” says Chandler.
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