Characterising Research on AR and VR for Health and Safety Training of Onsite Construction Workers: Identifying Gaps and Future Directions in Research

One area of Augmented and Virtual Realities (AR/VR) that has continuously attracted interest is the application of these immersive technologies to the Health and Safety (H&S) training of construction workers. This paper seeks to characterise research on AR/VR technologies for H&S training of onsite construction workers. A PRISMA-based systematic literature review (SLR) of 14 papers relating to AR/VR technologies for H&S training of construction workers was conducted. The review highlights five major categories of current AR/VR-based technologies applications for H&S training of onsite construction workers-i.e.: safety education and training, hazard identification and recognition, falling from heights, electrical hazards, and other hazards. The study revealed four categories for future directions in the applications of AR/VR for H&S training. These are interoperability of the technologies with other systems for H&S predictive analytics, deepened level of immersion to improve the degree of close-to-reality of the H&S training received by workers, realism comparison across the spectrum of technologies, and machine learning tools that allow the use of off-the-shelf cameras for capturing stereo-panorama videos for H&S training. The study’s main contribution to knowledge is the characterisation of research on AR/VR for H&S training so that challenges facing AR/VR applications for H&S training of onsite workers can be effectively mitigated.