VUs Construction Simulator

Digital technologies for construction industry will improve safety and efficiency.

Victoria University researchers have developed state-of-the-art technology that will take outdated aspects of Australia’s construction industry into a modern digital age.

Professor Zora Vrcelj (Head of VU’s Built Environment) and Professor Yuan Miao (Head of VU’s Information Technology) and their teams have combined high-tech tools with engineering and architecture to improve safety training in the construction profession – which has one of the highest rates of preventable accidents and deaths of any sector in Australia.

With the help of a construction simulator (COSI) with virtual reality (VR) at VU’s Werribee Campus, the researchers want to reduce workplace injuries and deaths. COSI’s fully-immersive VR experience allows trainees to use high-tech goggles and equipment to enter and explore a detailed simulation of a construction site to learn about safety – a big change from learning it through an instruction booklet or computer modules.

The simulator lets users learn to climb ladders, move equipment, work in a confined space, or walk along narrow scaffolding, without any real risk. Already city councils, construction giants like Simonds Homes, and even the Victorian Building Authority – the state’s chief industry regulator –have expressed interest. Professor Vrcelj said the project would help modernise the construction industry, which is currently among the least digitised industries in Australia, leading to high rates of worksite injuries, a lack of quality control and inefficiencies.

Andrew Shea, CEO of the Builders Academy Australia, Simonds Group, said training workers via simulated experiences would make a real difference to a worker’s learning and have a, “genuinely positive impact.”

The VU researchers have developed a cloud-based platform where photographs and 360-degree scans of the building are uploaded, and can be accessed remotely in real time from a smartphone or iPad. VU.edu.au

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