Abstract
Occupational safety and health (OSH) is active at all levels of the hierarchy of controls to prevent accidents associated with slips, trips and falls (STF). Training programs related to STF prevention are increasingly supported by virtual reality (VR) techniques. A review revealed a wide range of applications in practical and scientific areas. Trainings for operational practice vary regarding objectives, target groups, application contexts, media, and effectiveness, if available. Trainings in scientific studies are well designed for specific purposes at hand, but not suitable for direct application in operational practice. Research is required to bridge the gap. An investigation on gait stability and control in a VR-based obstacle avoidance training scenario has been conducted to contribute to developments in STF prevention. Initial results indicated a high level of presence and no evidence for detrimental effects on body and gait stability through application of VR techniques. This provides a sound basis for analysis of other data still required and for guiding similar and subsequent studies along knowledge gained by training programs available.
Highlights
The prevention of accidents involving slips, trips and falls (STF), accounting for about 20 % of all accidents across national studies, is at high priority in occupational safety and health (OSH) [1]
It is assumed that implementation and use of virtual reality (VR) in training applications will reduce the amount of physical training equipment required, increases flexibility in terms of training location and time, offers high fidelity training scenarios with hazardous situations at stake, and allows for new interventions for implementing training content
Even if training programs supported by VR techniques range at lower level in the hierarchy of controls for improving working conditions according to OSH [2], they have the potential to support prevention and actively involve employees in activities for prevention of STF accidents
Summary
The prevention of accidents involving slips, trips and falls (STF), accounting for about 20 % of all accidents across national studies, is at high priority in occupational safety and health (OSH) [1]. By means of substitution measures (e.g. using alternative walking routes without obstacles) or technical measures (e.g. designing work areas without steps, laying anti-slip floors), STF hazards are eliminated in principle and for many employees at the same time. Organizational (e.g. tidying up work areas, walking on official paths) and personal measures (e.g. wearing work shoes as personal protective equipment, attending behavioral training programs to reduce the consequences of accidents) can contribute to protection of employees and improvements in OSH. Behavioral prevention measures such as training in STF prevention have been discovered for virtual reality (VR) applications and are increasingly popular [4]. Some of the studies on development and implementation of VR in training environments demonstrate, that it might not always be that easy [5, 6]
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