Oregon State University Creates Lab for Virtual Jobsite Training

BY JOHN REXROAD
PUCUDA LEADING EDGE

In April of this year, Oregon State University's College of Engineering announced that it would be beginning a new project with support from a grant provided by Knife River Corporation, a member of multiple AGC chapters, and MDU Construction Services Group. The goal of the project is to develop one of the world's leading facilities to improve workplace safety conditions for construction workers and the general public. This $1 million grant will be dispersed to the program over the course of three years, during which time the College of Engineering will build a lab with two major components for studying construction safety. 

The first component of the project focuses on a high-definition simulator that creates a virtual interactive work environment. In the simulator, workers and researchers can study real-world workplace situations without risk of injury. The virtual lab is described as looking like a "cave," because it is dark and enclosed. At the front of the room, there's the screen that plays programmable simulations replicating real-world on-the-job scenarios. 

The projection system will also connect to a driving simulator with a replica car in the center. The replica car can be switched out with the cab of a crane, an excavator, work truck or another potential workplace vehicle. This virtual environment places vehicles and workers together in the same work zone. The driving simulator allows researchers to study traffic patterns and the effectiveness of fleet and vehicle safety procedures, as well as transportation safety. 

By simulating workplace operations, researchers can monitor the effects of new safety procedures, new rules and other changes that could affect the safety of workers on the job. In the real world, these studies are conducted in actual workplace environments where workers face a very real risk of injury. By examining workplace changes and conditions in a virtual environment, study participants remain safe. 

The second component of the new lab at OSU is the initiative to study Prevention through Design (PtD). This concept focuses on building safety controls into the actual work environment, reducing the reliance on lower levels of control, like personal protective equipment (PPE). PtD emphasizes implementation of workplace safety beginning with the design of the actual work environment.

The fundamental concept of PtD is that safety-focused, ergonomically enhanced environments, workstations and tools help to eliminate risks at the source. Pairing safely designed facilities and tools with safer methods and procedures provides a framework that can save workers’ lives. 

For example, a building being constructed following PtD principles would take into consideration the chemical storage needs of the future occupants. To ensure the safety of the future chemical handlers, the building design would include a room specifically designated for the safe storage of those chemicals. That same building might also have features like:

●Easy access to window exteriors to ensure maintenance personnel would be able to clean them with ease

●Safe access to roof-top maintenance areas and built-in fall protection measures

●Hazardous waste collection areas to ensure that all used chemicals and other forms of waste are kept in a safe location

PtD also emphasizes safety through the phases of construction of a building, and may even account for the safe demolition of that building. This initiative to study PtD expands upon OSU's previous push for advancement in these concepts. 

"While the original impetus of the lab was to protect roadside workers, I believe it has potential to do so much more than that in the field of commercial construction," says Scott Ashford, the dean and Kearney Professor of Engineering at the OSU College of Engineering. Ultimately, the initiative at OSU may provide the university with the ability to study safety in different industries and could have influence on workplace safety all over the country. 

OSHA reports that 4,585 workers were killed doing their jobs in 2013; more than 12 deaths every day. Twenty percent of the casualties in private industry that year were in the construction sector, and more than half of those casualties were caused by one of the following: falls, electrocutions, caught-in/between and struck by objects. With OSU's new virtual simulator and laboratory, these common workplace accidents can be studied, understood and ultimately designed out of the environment. Improving safety measures not only cuts down on major construction incidents, but also reduces numerous risks that can cost contractors a significant amount of money.