Virtual Collaborative Safety Training for the Crane Operations

Tower cranes are among the most frequently used heavy equipment in the construction industry for transporting materials in vertical and horizontal directions, which creates mechanical advantages for construction companies. Despite its advantages, enhancing the safety of tower crane operation is challenging. Crane activities require both a specialized skill set to operate and also collaboration among the specialized crafts. Therefore, an advanced collaborative training method may prevent serious incidents on construction sites. However, providing collaborative safety training on-site is risky and for some tasks impracticable. For this reason, virtual environments can be utilized to provide a safe space for developing necessary skill sets which might otherwise be
dangerous and risky on a real construction site. Moreover, accidents or hazardous cases can be demonstrated and tested without exposing the trainees to any real danger. In addition to developing skill sets, virtual environmentbased
training could also enhance the trainee’s collaboration skills by supporting multiuser interaction. In this study, we aimed to develop an effective safety training tool for crane operations that involves developing collaboration skills, ensuring knowledge transfer and providing elaborate feedback. We developed a virtual safety training tool called V-SAFE (Virtual Safety Analysis For Engineering applications) which simulates and visualizes tower crane scenarios. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed training system, undergraduate and
graduate students participated in an alpha test and virtual experiment. Results indicate that V-SAFE can successfully simulate collaborative tasks in a tower crane operation. Thus, this study has the potential to provide an effective safety training method for crane operations.