Canadian Occupational Safety

16 Canadian Occupational Safety | www.cos-mag.com don a headpiece and use a wand to mimic welding. The machine pro- vides real-time technique feedback. Driving simulators are used for train- ing in many industries. A wide range of simulators are available from those with a full-sized vehicle body to simple desktop simulators that use a computer monitor, steering wheel and pedals. But today's virtual reality technol- ogy is quite different — it provides a completely immersive experience for the worker. Initially, this type of technology was met with hesitation among some health and safety professionals. About four years ago, the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) in Sudbury, Ont. had met with safety professionals at mines in the area, but the response was that "safety is not a game." After creating 3D tours of Vale and Glencore mines and hiring a highly skilled artist to create realistic animations, the health and safety rep- resentatives were on board. NORCAT has developed an induc- tion training program where new contractors going to a site will expe- rience a ride-along VR experience. The company goes to an employer's work site and takes many photos and videos. It then inputs that informa- tion into various software tools to create a virtual world that resembles the company's work site, including the characters and equipment. When the software is complete and workers put a virtual reality visor on, they are taken around a replicated ver- sion of their work site. "When they arrive on site, there are triggers they can recall: 'Oh right, that's the facility I saw on the ride- along' and 'Oh right, that avatar in the VR experience actually resem- bles my direct supervisor,'" says Don Duval, CEO of NORCAT. NORCAT also has a robust virtual reality mine rescue program that is a multi-player, team based environment. Users can be anywhere in the world but they complete the training virtu- ally with their team, collaborating and relying on each other. They simply don their virtual reality goggles and enter a virtual mine site where they complete a rescue with their teammates. "It is very difficult, nearly impos- sible, to train in an actual mine rescue situation where there's been a disaster or something unexpected happened underground and people have to rush in and make timely decisions in order to save lives," says Duval. "You can't replicate that in a training environment." All the appropriate engineering specifications and timelines are a part of the virtual reality rescue. Oxygen is continuing to deplete under- ground and participants must retrieve extinguishers, navigate smoke, com- municate with surface operations and much more, says Duval. The training Hooter and his IUPAT members are completing is by Serious Labs in Edmonton. The aerial work platform is the company's flagship vir- tual reality training program for heavy industry. It can be used to train anyone who has to perform a task at height while using a mobile elevated work platform, such as sheet metal workers, plumbers and electricians. "You need to get to the height to do your job. Those guys are not professional operators — they're pro- fessional at something else but they need to do it in the air," says Jim Colvin, CEO of Serious Labs. "It's a super dangerous piece of equipment, True-to-life virtual reality environments allow workers to be trained on dangerous scenarios without any risk By Amanda Silliker hris Hooter is an operator in a man basket, pulling a lever to move an aerial lift up — way up — to 100 feet. He is a painter and is positioning to do a job on a high-rise office build- ing. He manipulates the joystick on the platform control panel to move the lift to the right to get it better aligned. His centre of gravity is off for a second and the aerial lift tilts down ever so slightly. He re-adjusts and keeps moving up. The lift bounces a little bit as it gets into place. Finally, he has reached the top and can access his work area. But Hooter isn't on a real aerial lift or at a real office building — he is completing all these tasks in vir- tual reality (VR). He is standing on a mock aerial lift motion platform and is wearing a virtual reality visor, which work together to make his task seem extremely realistic. "If you're a gamer you'll just take right to it," says Hooter, director of training for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) for the Prairies, whose members are currently completing training using VR. "It's pretty cool. When he pulls the lever to raise the basket, he goes up and he's looking down and it's very realistic." Virtual reality is gaining traction as a training tool in occupational health and safety. The technology provides a virtual environment that causes the user to suspend disbelief and immerse themselves in a virtual world. It uses sight, sound and sometimes motion to provide a realistic experience. The appeal of virtual reality in the occupational health and safety space is that it provides a method of training workers on their actual job tasks in a safe environment. "You can do it in an office setting. You're not outside on an oilsand site or potash mine with risk all around you. It's all done virtually, so you can't get hurt," says Hooter. Over the years, safety professionals have dipped their toes in the virtual space with machines that simulate real work, such as Lincoln Electric's virtual welding machine. Trainees

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