Game technology and Building Information Modelling for the adoption of Virtual Reality in construction safety training: a prototype protocol

Building construction is considered a complex, dynamic and highly hazardous process which embraces many factors that are potentially dangerous to workers. Many studies proved that the improvement of preventive and proactive measures -dynamically included in the building design, planning and construction- could reduce site accidents as well as increase the site productivity. In this context, process management models and information visualization techniques such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) seem to be devoted to strongly contribute to the advancement of the current safety management practices. For these reasons, the presented contribution is based on the assumption that a more nuanced approach for construction worker’s safety training is warranted and the authors propose a safety training protocol based on BIM-enabled virtual reality activity simulations. The protocol addresses three methodological issues: (1) Planning in terms of training typologies and related Health and Safety contents to be implemented in the VR construction site scenarios; (2) Management regarding the solution to integrate BIM and game technologies to deliver VR training experiences; (3) Administration in terms of definition of standardized rules to define a safety training schedule in a given construction project. The research gives a contribution to reduce the currently existing knowledge gap regarding how BIM and VR can be simultaneously integrated in real projects for construction safety training by using standardized rules to be extensively reproduced in different construction projects.