Analyzing the impact of simulation fidelity on VR-enabled hazard detection on construction sites – A case study on crane lift operation

Abstract Crane operator training is an essential part of construction safety and is attracting extensive attention from researchers worldwide. Virtual reality (VR) is considered an effective tool to improve training outcomes by providing users with an immersive, risk-free experience in various environments. However, previous VR-based training platforms mainly focused on the scenario and task design; few studies attempted to investigate the impact of simulation fidelity on training efficiency. This research aims to explore the effect of simulation fidelity on training outcomes by comparing user performance in two scenarios. A typical construction site was modelled in a game engine using two rendering approaches; an eye-tracking system was adopted for data collection. The results from a subject experiment indicated the high efficiency of VR in operator safety training and demonstrated the usefulness of eye-tracking in measuring hazard detection performance. Findings showed that a higher level of simulation fidelity might not significantly improve the training efficiency, especially in hazard detection aspects.