Vibrotactile Warnings Design for Improving Risks Awareness in Construction Environment

Construction workers have difficulty identifying potential risks in harsh environments because traditional visual and acoustical alerts are inefficient. This study investigated a new communication method with a wearable tactile-based system to improve worker’s hazard perception. Three experiments are reported in relation to this system. The first experiment exploited VR as an experimental tool to compare auditory and vibrotactile warning signals as well as their combination in a simulated construction working environment. Findings demonstrated that the vibrotactile cues induced faster response times and higher affective ratings than auditory alarms, and their combination provided the shortest reaction time. The second experiment compared 7 different vibrotactile patterns varying in intensity, duration, and interval, to identify configurations that led to a higher degree of awareness. The third experiment validated the effectiveness of three selected tactons for delivering information on 3 hazard levels, finding that subjects could identify three-parameter signals with relatively low error. Our findings provide guidelines for designing tactile warning signals, which could help improve hazard recognition and risk perception, especially in construction sites.