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Virtual reality and human factors applications for improving safety

Objective

It is common to attribute as many as 90% of major accidents in high-risk productions, such as the chemical and petrochemical industries, to human error. To improve safety of high-risk productions while at the same time keeping the inherent safety level of present technologies it is therefore necessary to improve the way in which such systems are designed and operated throughout the lifecycle. The project aims at producing a new technology by creatively coupling Human Factors (HF) knowledge and Virtual Real ity (VR). The innovative character of the new technology will make HF knowledge widely available by embedding it in Virtual Environments. This enables improvements of the safety production in the entire lifecycle, i.e. Exploration & Drilling, Design, Construction, Commissioning, Operation, Maintenance, Repair & Modification, and Decommissioning. A set of new and specific tools will be developed to cope with safety critical problems identified by end-users during each of the lifecycle stages. The br eakthrough provided by the VIRTHUALIS technology is the opportunity to move from static and paper-based analyses to dynamic virtual simulations. Safety analyses like HAZOP, FMEA, PHA, Task Analysis and Human Reliability Assessments will be represented in a way that will be natural for safety analysts to integrate HF knowledge into the analyses. Safety critical situations will be studied through tangible visualisations rather than just being imagined. The new technology will be developed by a network of Eur opean experts in the HF, VR and Process Industry domains who have been clustered in centres of references in order to produce fit-for-the-purpose tools. All the centres will be tightly linked through a common technological platform to facilitate exchanges of insights and innovations. The proposal will address the NMP aims of moving from resource-based approaches towards more knowledge-based ones and providing technologies to protect people and the environ

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2003-NMP-NI-3
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Funding Scheme

IP - Integrated Project

Coordinator

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
EU contribution
No data
Address
Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32
MILANO
Italy

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Total cost
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Participants (47)

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Last update: 19 October 2011

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/515831

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