Evaluating the impact of proactive warning systems on worker safety performance: An immersive virtual reality study

Abstract

Physical safety signs on construction sites often fail to capture workers’ attention. In contrast, proactive warning systems designed to provide immediate feedback on dynamic risks show promise in improving workers’ safety measures. Despite established evidence for the feasibility of such technologies, there is a gap in research about their actual impact on safety behavior. This study explores the effects of these proactive systems on improving safety performance for construction workers within an immersive virtual environment (IVE). To this end, a novel virtual warning system was introduced, providing real-time alerts to workers when approaching hazardous areas. The study utilized a comparative experimental setup to evaluate the proactive system against standard safety signs. A group of 56 participants engaged in IVE trials, contributing behavioral data for analysis. Findings reveal the proactive warning system significantly outperforms traditional signage in delivering hazard warnings without hindering on the participants’ overall task performance. The data strongly support the further development and practical implementation of proactive warning systems in construction safety management.