Next generation digital tools like virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) are making their way into the training classrooms of the heavy equipment industry. The technologies themselves are quickly evolving, and their acceptance is being driven by an audience growing increasingly fluent in using digital tools, opening the traditional classroom to a new way of teaching.
For the aerial access and rental industries, simulator training could provide trainees with improved equipment operating skills while decreasing the potential for accidents and fatalities.
According to Jim Colvin, CEO of Serious Labs, VR is becoming a more accessible training method around the world, and a virtual-style classroom enables students to learn from their mistakes safely, without the risks of damage to the equipment, or injury to themselves.
“Training via VR simulators allows you to be put in dangerous situations without putting you in harm’s way. That's very powerful,” says Colvin. “In VR, anything could be created that you want to experience, anything that ultimately you might encounter.”
Is It Real, Or A Simulation?
Specifically in the access industry, VR simulators replicate how equipment such as mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs), cranes and forklifts operate.
According to Colvin, many users experience total surprise and shock at the immersive nature through the combination of a VR headset and a full motion base when they try it.
“First time users of our MEWP operator training simulator often forget they are not actually at height, and will hold on for dear life, lowering the boom before stepping off,” he says.
For equipment such as MEWPs, the immersive nature of VR puts the trainee into a simulated environment, and the “sense of presence” lets them interact as if they are on an actual worksite. Trainees can learn and hone critical skills at height through trial and error in the fully immersive, yet consequence-free, environment.
“Immersing a trainee into a dangerous situation risk-free gives them an actual worksite experience that can’t be replicated in real life,” says Colvin. “By letting them make mistakes in a virtual world, they learn respect for the equipment and learn the right way to operate it. That makes them safer and more competent at the same time.”
Are VR Simulators Better Teachers?
VR and XR are powerful for creating conditions for people to learn in because of how we learn, he explains. “Science tells us that with active learning, when we do something, there is about 90-percent retention. While if you listen to a lecture, or passively read the information, there is a retention rate of about 10 percent. VR and AR technologies give the user a truly immersive, first-person experience in the learning process.”
By measuring performance in quantifiable and practical terms, or what Serious Labs refers to as “Operator Telematics,” trainers, project directors, contractors, and companies can gain useable insight into the risk or value an operator brings to the jobsite — avoiding the risk of placing unprepared operators on live equipment prematurely.
Moreover, trainee actions and behaviors are more effectively measured and monitored in a simulated VR environment as opposed to watching someone operate actual equipment, particularly at height. Operational metrics give instructors a sense of how trainees will operate the equipment, highlighting potential problem areas prior to hands-on evaluation. This results in a safer worker who is easier on the actual equipment they will be operating.
By understanding how errors and failure to observe best practices can impact the equipment, jobsite, or the safety of others, Serious Labs says that trainees gain insight through simulated training into how to improve their skills. Trainers, meanwhile, are better informed when it comes to clearing operators for the jobsite and can better direct additional training to improve areas that are still untrained or lack consistency. A trainee’s session results are then compared against a performance baseline determined by the customer.
“This baseline is informed by industry standards, but minimum expectations can be raised or lowered depending on the values and demands of each customer,” says Darren Verschuren, international account director, Serious Labs. “Would you rather have a person assessing how you did, or hard data that shows you exactly what you did, and where you need to get better at it? In many ways, a VR simulator is a better teacher, although you will still need a real person to certify you as a final step.”
Deloitte and Touche stated in its Global Human Capital Trends annual report that leading companies increasingly recognize that next generation technologies such as VR, XR and AI are most effective when they complement humans, not replace them.
“There’s definitely a place for in-person training. What we offer is an enhancement,” said Verschuren. “There will always be people that prefer to be trained on real machines. And if you've never driven a machine before, I think you should drive a real machine for the first time. But we've got the rest of the guy's life to measure him, to improve them, to do things after that course.”
Telematics is Not Just for Machines
Telematics has seen a sharp rise in popularity and global adoption in the heavy equipment industry over the last few years. The technology helps to answer questions that change the way machines are serviced, like helping rental stores schedule preventive maintenance, or offering "descriptive data” to allow rental companies to know what's going on inside of the machine. Telematics, however, is not only measurement for equipment; it is now being applied to human-machine interaction as well.
“Telematics is a measurement that communicates data to the rental company and to the end user so the machines can be used better. It's looking at things like maintenance, charging, how it's performing, utilization, etc.,” says Verschuren. “Operator telematics looks at the same types of things. It’s data to the rental company and to the end user to use the machines better, but for the most important element, which is for the person pressing the buttons.”
According to Silicon Valley-based tech company StriVR that develops soft-skill onboarding solutions in VR for customers like Wal-Mart and Verizon, the unique data collected from VR-based training has provided insights traditional learning methods never have, including attention metrics indicating levels of engagement and potential on-the-job performance. Human performance is now measurable.
One of the key ways Serious Labs uses telematics is for assessment. The MEWP simulator objectively measures over 130 data points of “Operator Telematics” values to allow the trainer to provide highly detailed information to help the user increase their proficiency quickly. An Efficiency, Safety, Proficiency (ESP) score combines how efficiently the operator completes tasks, and how safely they do it, to determine an overall proficiency score, allowing for large numbers of operators to be assessed relatively quickly.
“In every session, we’re measuring things like how quickly they’re moving the controls, where operators are looking, and how they’re distributing the machine’s weight. That lets us know their proficiency with much more detail and reliability than we’d ever be able to get from human assessment alone.”
Training Simulators on the Largest Infrastructure Project in Europe
VR and XR are certainly not new technologies. Training through simulators, for example, has been used by the aviation industry and the military for decades, and for good reason.
“Simulated training is an effective and risk-free way to train, and to refresh training, that has been used by other industries successfully or decades. The technology has now arrived to the heavy equipment industry,” said Colvin.
In January, Serious Labs announced a pilot of its Mobile Elevating Work Platforms operator training simulator for the UK's HS2 rail line, the largest infrastructure project in Europe. The HS2’s first phase alone involves the construction of more than 300 bridges and 70 viaducts. Its contractors expect to recruit approximately 22,000 roles in the coming years – offering people a path back into work after the pandemic while creating a challenge for operators who may not be familiar with operating MEWPs.
Serious Labs’ VR training simulator will be used to carry out short 30-minute, COVID-19-safe training assessments of all MEWP operators on the Align JV jobsite. Digital reports will provide data for review of the operator’s full range of skills, knowledge, and attitude, highlighting key areas where improvements could be made. The operators will be assessed throughout the project at specified intervals to map their progress with a goal of continually improving their expertise on MEWPs to help ensure jobsite safety.
“The HS2 jobsite is just the beginning of where we see training heading in the future,” says Colvin. “We see the ability to train and measure the competency of an operator as the future of operator training and certification in the aerial and rental industries, particularly in the COVID world and beyond.”