research-article

Virtual reality training applications for the mining industry

Authors:

AFRIGRAPH '09: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Visualisation and Interaction in Africa

Pages 53 - 63

https://doi.org/10.1145/1503454.1503465

Published: 04 February 2009 Publication History

Get Access

Abstract

Virtual reality is a rapidly growing technology which utilises the ever-increasing power of computers to simulate real-world and imaginary environments and situations with a high degree of realism and interactiveness.

Safety in the South African mining industry is a vital issue. On average, one worker dies every working day, and about 16 are injured in mine-related accidents. Inadequate or insufficient training is often cited as a root cause for many mining fatalities. However, training outside the direct working environment provides only limited real-life opportunities and may fail to make a significant impact within the tense working environment itself. Virtual reality-based training tools can, by contrast, provide simulated exposure to real-world working conditions without the associated risks.

This paper discusses contextual requirements and constraints for virtual reality application development, applied to safety training in mines. The results of the contextual analysis were applied to the design and development of several prototypes of VR training systems. The paper also reports on how realism can be enhanced in simulation training systems.

References

[1]

Baker, D. 2005. Interview with Safety, Health and Environment Manager, Anglo Platinum Bafokeng-Rasimone, (notes in possession of researcher).

Google Scholar

[2]

Bise, C. J. 1997. Virtual Reality: Emerging Technology for Training of Miners, Mining Engineering, 49(1).

Google Scholar

[3]

Denby, B., Schofield, D., McClaron, D. J., Williams, M. W., and Walsha, T. 1998. Hazard Awareness Training For Mining Situations Using 'Virtual Reality'.

Google Scholar

[4]

Denby, B., and Schofield, D. 1999. Role of Virtual Reality in Safety Training of Mine Personnel. Mining Engineering, October:59--64.

Google Scholar

[5]

De Strulle, A. 2004. Differentiation of the Causal Characteristics and Influences of Virtual Reality and the Effects on Learning at a Science Exhibit, PhD Thesis, University of San Diego.

Google Scholar

[6]

Department of Minerals and Energy. 2005. Guideline for Enforcement of the Mine Health and Safety Act {Online}. Available from: http://www.dme.gov.za/publications/pdf/guidelines/guideline_e nforcement_mhs_act.pdf. {Accessed: 22/12/2006}.

Google Scholar

[7]

Department of Minerals and Energy. 2006. Accident Statistics {Online}. Available from: http://www.dme.gov.za/mhs/accident_stats.stm.{Accessed: 20/07/2007}.

Google Scholar

[8]

Department of Minerals and Energy. 2008. SAMRASS {Online}. Available from: http://www.dme.gov.za/pdfs/mhs/samrass/cb_sect_e.pdf. {Accessed: 16/06/2008}.

Google Scholar

[9]

Le Roux, A. 2005. Mine fatalities down, but still too high. Mining Weekly {Online}. Available from: http://www.miningweekly.co.za/min/features/health/?show=665 81 {Accessed: 12/06/2006}.

Google Scholar

[10]

Lubbe, O. S. 2006. Interview with Chief Executive, Chrome Mining Division, XSTRATA Alloys, Rustenburg, (notes in possession of the researcher).

Google Scholar

[11]

Milgram, P., and Kishino, F. 1994. A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays. IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, Vol E77-D, No. 12 December.

Google Scholar

[12]

Mine Health and Safety Act. 1996. Act No. 29 of 1996 {Online}. Available from: http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/legislation/1996/act96-029.html {Accessed: 22/04/2007}.

Google Scholar

[13]

Moldenhauer, R. 2004. Interview with Safety, Health and Environment Manager, Anglo Platinum Lebowa, (notes in possession of the researcher).

Google Scholar

[14]

Orr, T. J., Filigenzi, M. T., and Ruff, T. M. 2002. Desktop Virtual Reality Miner Training Simulator {Online}. Available from: www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pdfs/dvrmt.pdf. {Accessed: 12/01/2007}.

Google Scholar

[15]

Schmid, M. 2003. Virtually Assured -- the role of virtual reality in the field of coal mining. World Coal, No. 11, pp. 45--48

Google Scholar

[16]

Schofield, D., Denby, B., and Hollands, R. 2001. Mine Safety in the Twenty-First Century: The Application of Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality, In Mine Health and Safety Management, ed. Michael Karmis. Littleton, Colorado: SME, Chapter 10, pp. 153--174, November 2001.

Google Scholar

[17]

Squelch, A. P. 2000. VR as an industrial training and marketing tool. Conference Proceedings IFIP 2000 {Online}. Available from: www.irv.ufsc.br/IFIP-WG-9.5/proceedings. {Accessed: 12/04/2008}.

Google Scholar

[18]

Squelch, A. P. 2001. Virtual reality for mine safety training in South Africa. J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall., 101(4). SAIMM, Johannesburg.

Google Scholar

[19]

Stander, D. 2005. Interview with Mine Manager Anglo Platinum Lebowa, (notes in possession of the researcher).

Google Scholar

[20]

Stothard, P. M., Otto, D., Laurence, D. C., Galvin, J. M., Zenari, L. 2001. e-minesafe Safety and Training Simulator "The Integration of Knowledge and Skills to Achieve Safe Human Responses" UMRC Research Report RR10/01 ISBN No. 0 7334 1844 9.

Google Scholar

[21]

Stothard, P. 2007. Developing and Deploying and Deploying Interactive Training Simulations for the Coal Mining Industry. Proceedings SIMTECT 2007.

Google Scholar

[22]

Stothard, P. M., Squelch, A. P., Van Wyk, E. A., Schofield, D., Fowle, K., Caris, C., Kizil, M., and Schmid, M. 2008. Taxonomy of Interactive Computer-based Visualisation Systems and Content for the Mining Industry - Part 1, Proceedings of the AUSIMM Future Mining Conference 2008, Sydney.

Google Scholar

[23]

Unger, R., and Mallet, L. 2007. Virtual Reality in Mine Training, in SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit, February 25--28, Denver, Colorado, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.

Google Scholar

[24]

Van Wyk, E. A. 2006. Improving Mine Safety Training Using Interactive Simulations. In Proceedings of the ED-MEDIA 2006 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2006: 2454--2459. Orlando, Florida.

Google Scholar

[25]

Van Wyk, E. A., and Callaghan, R. 2007. E-learning as a solution for mine safety training in South Africa, Proceedings of Online Educa Berlin 2007.

Google Scholar

[26]

Wenhold, M. 2005. Interview with Safety, Health and Environment Manager, Impala Platinum Rustenburg, (notes in possession of the researcher).

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Lampropoulos GFernández-Arias PAntón-Sancho ÁVergara D(2024)Examining the Role of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Safety TrainingElectronics10.3390/electronics1319395213:19(3952)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13193952
Wei ZJin STong WYip DHui PXu X(2024)Multi-Role VR Training System for Film Production: Enhancing Collaboration with MetaCrewACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Posters10.1145/3641234.3671022(1-2)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641234.3671022
Gohman TNisar HGupta AJaved MRau N(2024)Development and usability of a virtual reality umbilical venous catheter placement simulatorInternational Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery10.1007/s11548-024-03072-819:5(881-889)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-024-03072-8
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Virtual reality training applications for the mining industry

Recommendations

Usability context analysis for virtual reality training in South African mines
SAICSIT '08: Proceedings of the 2008 annual research conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists on IT research in developing countries: riding the wave of technology

The usability of any tool or system has to be viewed in terms of the context in which it is used, and its appropriateness to that context. According to the ISO definition of usability, the context of use includes the users, tasks, equipment (hardware, ...
Process and Outcome-based Evaluation between Virtual Reality-driven and Traditional Construction Safety Training
Highlights
- The study investigated the effectiveness of VR-driven immersive safety training.
Abstract
The emerging digital technologies such as virtual reality (VR) provide an alternative platform for construction safety training. In order to explore how digital-driven technologies affect the effectiveness of safety training, there is ...
Use of Virtual Reality for Safety Training: A Systematic Review
Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management. Health, Operations Management, and Design
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of virtual reality in safety training. This study used various data analysis tools to perform a systematic literature review to explore the use of virtual reality for safety training. Metadata was ...

Reviews

Reviewer: William R. Oates

It is refreshing to see progress toward virtual reality (VR) training in such a quintessentially appropriate environment as mining. In South Africa, one worker dies every day, on average, from mine accidents. The government has called for improved safety training for underground workers. Yet, realistic training inside mines has risks, and actual situations for training are too few to cover the full range of possible incidents. VR training environments offer ideal, safe settings for mine workers to experience and practice mine situations and activities, with a high degree of realism and interactivity. To this end, van Wyk and de Villiers establish research-based guidelines for the development of VR training systems. Through extensive observation, questionnaires, and interviews with both mine workers and managers, they detail an impressive catalog of "contextual requirements and constraints for VR training systems for the mining industry." To address a research question on how to enhance realism in simulation training, they develop VR training prototypes for five topics: hazard awareness; causes of ground falls; reconstruction of fatal accidents; trackless vehicle hazards; and smelting plant hazards. The first training prototype has four language options: English, Tswana, Sepedi, and Khosa; this is one of many key features identified in the analysis of contextual requirements in the user category. Other categories are tasks, equipment, environment, and training. Results for both trainee and management participants indicate that "virtual reality training is viable and advantageous for the South African mining industry" and, likely, for much of the African continent. Online Computing Reviews Service

Access critical reviews of Computing literature here

Become a reviewer for Computing Reviews.

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

AFRIGRAPH '09: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Visualisation and Interaction in Africa

February 2009

113 pages

ISBN:9781605584287

DOI:10.1145/1503454

Conference Chairs:
Alexandre Hardy
University of Johannesburg
,
CONFERENCE CHAIR,
Patrick Marais
University of Cape Town
,
CONFERENCE CHAIR,
Editor:
Stephen N. Spencer
University of Washington
,
Program Chairs:
James Gain
University of Cape Town
,
Wolfgang Strasser
University of Tuebingen

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 04 February 2009

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

AFRIGRAPH '09

Sponsor:

SIGGRAPH

AFRIGRAPH '09: 6th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Visualisation and Interaction in Africa

February 4 - 6, 2009

Pretoria, South Africa

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 47 of 90 submissions, 52%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

89
Total Citations
View Citations
3,758
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)189
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)22

Reflects downloads up to 25 Dec 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Lampropoulos GFernández-Arias PAntón-Sancho ÁVergara D(2024)Examining the Role of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Safety TrainingElectronics10.3390/electronics1319395213:19(3952)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13193952
Wei ZJin STong WYip DHui PXu X(2024)Multi-Role VR Training System for Film Production: Enhancing Collaboration with MetaCrewACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Posters10.1145/3641234.3671022(1-2)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641234.3671022
Gohman TNisar HGupta AJaved MRau N(2024)Development and usability of a virtual reality umbilical venous catheter placement simulatorInternational Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery10.1007/s11548-024-03072-819:5(881-889)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-024-03072-8
Krawczyk A(2023)Mining GeomaticsISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information10.3390/ijgi1207027812:7(278)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi12070278
Shringi AArashpour MGolafshani EDwyer TKalutara P(2023)Enhancing Safety Training Performance Using Extended Reality: A Hybrid Delphi–AHP Multi-Attribute Analysis in a Type-2 Fuzzy EnvironmentBuildings10.3390/buildings1303062513:3(625)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13030625
Cmentowski SKaraosmanoglu SNacke LSteinicke FKrüger J(2023)Never Skip Leg Day Again: Training the Lower Body with Vertical Jumps in a Virtual Reality ExergameProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3580973(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3580973
Yu LLi CZhang YAlghofaili RHuang HYu LLiu HChoi MBannan BMousas C(2023)Establishing Design Computing and Extended Reality Facilities for Remote Virtual Reality Training2023 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)10.1109/VRW58643.2023.00053(216-220)Online publication date: Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW58643.2023.00053
Jain AJain MPatel MRathore N(2023)An Enhanced and Interactive Training Model for Underground Coal Mines Using Virtual Reality2023 Second International Conference on Electronics and Renewable Systems (ICEARS)10.1109/ICEARS56392.2023.10084970(361-365)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEARS56392.2023.10084970
Bartalucci LSecciani NBrogi CTopini ADella Valle ARidolfi AAllotta B(2023)An original mechatronic design of a kinaesthetic hand exoskeleton for virtual reality-based applicationsMechatronics10.1016/j.mechatronics.2023.10294790(102947)Online publication date: Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechatronics.2023.102947
Gauthier SLeduc MPerfetto SGodwin A(2022)Use of Virtual Reality to Increase Awareness of Line-of-Sight Hazards around Industrial EquipmentSafety10.3390/safety80300528:3(52)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/safety8030052
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Usability context analysis for virtual reality training in South African mines

Process and Outcome-based Evaluation between Virtual Reality-driven and Traditional Construction Safety Training

Use of Virtual Reality for Safety Training: A Systematic Review

Reviews

Access critical reviews of Computing literature here