Projects and Cooperation
VIRTHUALIS
Preventing accidents in large industrial plants is a top priority. Up to ninety percent of the serious accidents in risky manufacturing processes, e.g. in the chemical industry, can be attributed to human error.
VIRTHUALIS (Virtual Reality and Human Factors applications for Improving Safety), an international consortium of forty-three partners is working on how to reduce hazards in production and storage facilities. Fraunhofer researchers from the Virtual Development and Training Centre VDTC in Magdeburg are also involved in the project.
Focusing on hazards primarily caused by human factors, the goal of VIRTHUALIS is to identify weak points in plant safety at an early stage, increase plant safety and organize aspects of safety transparently to be able to manage critical situations safely.
As part of VIRTHUALIS, researchers are developing a novel technology platform that merges human factor issues and the behavior of technical processes in a virtual development environment. This will make process states critical for safety clearly understandable for personnel (operators, safety managers). The consequences of human action are recognizable directly in the virtual environment, transparently traceable and reproducible at any time. VIRTHUALIS can already be used in the plant design phase to clearly identify safety risks and eliminate them. One example of application is virtual firefighting by simulating different hazard situations scenarios. The results of the VIRTHUALIS project are particularly interesting for risk assessment, accident prevention and accident analyses. VIRTHUALIS greatly benefits plant manufacturers and operators. The researchers involved are striving to reduce accidents and personal injuries in hazardous industries, to increase plant availability throughout the entire production life cycle and to reduce expenditures related to safety..
Benefits:
VIRTHUALIS (Virtual Reality and Human Factors applications for Improving Safety), an international consortium of forty-three partners is working on how to reduce hazards in production and storage facilities. Fraunhofer researchers from the Virtual Development and Training Centre VDTC in Magdeburg are also involved in the project.
Focusing on hazards primarily caused by human factors, the goal of VIRTHUALIS is to identify weak points in plant safety at an early stage, increase plant safety and organize aspects of safety transparently to be able to manage critical situations safely.
As part of VIRTHUALIS, researchers are developing a novel technology platform that merges human factor issues and the behavior of technical processes in a virtual development environment. This will make process states critical for safety clearly understandable for personnel (operators, safety managers). The consequences of human action are recognizable directly in the virtual environment, transparently traceable and reproducible at any time. VIRTHUALIS can already be used in the plant design phase to clearly identify safety risks and eliminate them. One example of application is virtual firefighting by simulating different hazard situations scenarios. The results of the VIRTHUALIS project are particularly interesting for risk assessment, accident prevention and accident analyses. VIRTHUALIS greatly benefits plant manufacturers and operators. The researchers involved are striving to reduce accidents and personal injuries in hazardous industries, to increase plant availability throughout the entire production life cycle and to reduce expenditures related to safety..
Benefits:
- Reduction of accidents and personal injuries in hazardous industries (e.g. process industry)
- Noticeable increase in the availability of plants throughout their entire life cycle
- Reduction of current expenditures for safety and thus production costs
Target Group:
- Plant manufacturers and operators and their suppliers and service providers
Applications:
- Risk assessment
- Accident analysis
- Safety management
- Training
More
Contact:
Mr. Waleed Salem
Tel. +49 (0) 391/ 40 90-135
Fax +49 (0) 391/ 40 90- 115
Fraunhofer Institute for
Factory Operation and Automation IFF
Sandtorstrasse 22
39106 Magdeburg