APPLICATIONS OF IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

The construction industry contributes significantly to workplace fatalities and injuries despite multiple interventions implemented by governments and construction companies. Recently, immersive technologies as part of a suite of industry 4.0 technologies have also strongly emerged as a viable pathway to help address poor construction occupational safety and health (OSH) performance. A review of literature on the application of immersive technologies for construction OSH management is conducted with the aim of gaining a broader view of different construction OSH areas using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) approach. The evaluation of 79 relevant articles were carried out, selected from Scopus database. The review revealed that literature have focused on the application of various immersive technologies for hazard identification and visualisation, safety training, design for safety, risk perception and assessment in various construction works. This review identified several limitations regarding the use of immersive technologies, which include the low level of adoption of developed immersive technologies for OSH management, very limited research works on the application of immersive technologies for health hazards and limited focus on the effectiveness of various immersive technologies for construction OSH management. Future research should identify possible reasons for the low level knowledge transfer from research to practice and proffer ways of addressing the identified reasons. The effectiveness of the use of immersive technologies for addressing health hazards should also be investigated.