WSP applies VR to HSSE training

Photo courtesy WSP.

Consulting engineering firm WSP’s MediaLab team is applying virtual reality (VR) to health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) training for clients across multiple industries.

Inspired by the airline industry, which has long trained pilots in simulators that can mimic the conditions and problems of a real-world flight, WSP has developed VR prototypes for other niche scenarios. As one client’s trainee put it after experiencing the technology, “You obviously learn better when you perform the activity instead of just studying it!”

With growing demand for HSSE training, companies have used VR-based simulators for fields like forklift operation and truck driving, but WSP also sees a need to apply the technology to more specific scenarios like entering a confined storage tank, performing inspections in challenging terrain, operating around moving vehicles and reviewing complex procedures that require certain sequences of tasks. In particular, VR lets users safely experience extreme and dangerous scenarios for which they need to be trained, such as the unplanned release of a hazardous gas.

The firm reports several trends have helped make such applications feasible for more industries, including video game developments, lower-cost electronics (including 360-degree camera rigs and VR headsets), easier-to-use VR-enabled learning management systems (LMSs) and increased computing power.