Tue, 10 December, 2024
An audience of attendees, interested in industrial research, development and innovation, from more than 15 countries, had the opportunity to take a deep-dive into a current, cutting edge, collaborative project recently – at the SafeXtend Webinar: Transforming Construction Industry Productivity ~ Training through Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Virtual Reality – hosted by the TWI Innovation Network.
The webinar speakers, representing the project consortium, explained how SafeXtend is reimaging the way training is delivered in the construction industry, with the creation of a new, virtual reality (VR)-format platform, harnessing AI, that offers significant benefits over existing training products already on the market.
Construction personnel using the SafeXtend platform will be immersed in realistic job site simulations within a VR environment, completing scenario-based lessons through interaction with an AI instructor avatar. Application of AI also enables training to be tailored to the user’s specific skills, as determined by in-built skills assessment, and continuously evaluates the individual’s performance, adapting instructions accordingly. In this way, trainees receive real-time feedback to help guide their personal development and are more engaged than when learning through traditional methods, such as static checklists.
In order to cover the project’s ambitious technological aspects, and how these are transformational in terms of construction industry training, the webinar Agenda focused on the following presentations:
- An introduction to VR by Dr Edgar Segovia, Energy Consultant, V-LAB
- Boosting efficiency with AI-powered VR: real-world impact by Paul Bass, Founder of Tricore Technical Services
- Developing safer construction sites through AI and VR innovations by Dr Abiodun Ayodeji, Research Fellow at the Brunel Innovation Centre (BIC: a Brunel University of London-TWI partnership)
- Understanding the SafeXtend Training Solution by Azhar Nalakath, Technology Associate, V-LAB
Attendees were also shown how the VR world is generated within SafeXtend, and the resulting outputs, using technologies such as cloud point data capture and processing, photogrammetry, smart-SAM (segment anything model), imaging matrixes and mesh conversion to build and render a true-to-life, virtual scenario of a real-word construction site.
The webinar concluded with a group Q&A session, with interested parties invited to get in touch following the event if they would like to explore the SafeXtend solution further.