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In this case study, we explore how OTR created an…
Challenge
Any gas station is a hazardous location due to flammable vapors. To reduce such hazards, the management must ensure compliance with practical regulations and conduct regular safety training sessions for station personnel. In its turn, this is often associated with increased risks and costs.
Our client, an international chain of petroleum stations, contacted OTR to create an immersive VR training teaching their personnel how to handle and respond to emergencies. The main objective was to deliver hands-on practice to ensure employees’ and customers’ safety in fires caused by LPG leaks and fuel spills.
Solution: Description and Key Capabilities
Solution:
VR training for fire fighting drills
Industry:
Retail
Technologies:
Unity, Unreal Engine 4
Methodologies:
Waterfall, Scrum
Project Duration:
6 weeks
Project Team:
1 PM, 1 3D Modeller, 3 VR developers (C++, UE4), 1 UI/UX specialist
Our customer aimed to improve traditional training and increase engagement and retention while enabling scalability and cost savings. The final product was to incorporate the following:
Provisions to track the accuracy and speed of the performed actions;
A wide range of visual effects to realistically simulate multiple scenarios;
Image-based modeling of station’s interior and exterior designs;
Evacuation route plans based on the 2D drawings;
Interactive objects and environments;
Training stats immediately routed for further review
Our key focus, in this case, was on the information gathering precision and time. The entire system should replace human resources and eliminate errors.
Development Approach
OTR developed a VR solution allowing trainees to interact with hazards in virtual spaces that replicated their everyday working environment. We based it on a set of 2D drawings of their standard gas station as the safety drill’s storyboard had to rely precisely on the existing facilities’ layout. Our Unity experts and 3D modelers built realistic replicas of interior and exterior objects, including the cashier’s desk, fuel dispensers, and fire extinguishers, which were later enhanced with interactive options.
Our safety experts came up with a safety drill scenario: the specific actions plan the employees had to follow and the order of such activities. They outlined the evacuation procedures, escape routes, assembly points. Employees need to ring the alarm, call the firefighters, find the fire extinguishers, and take action to put off the fire. We later integrated analytical tools to track the individual performance of each participant and score them accordingly.
The development team included several highlighted navigation hotspots and interactive objects. We relied on Unreal Engine 4 to bring these features to life, which also allowed us to integrate realistic special effects like fire, ambient sounds, and hi-res visuals to recreate real-life emergency test trainees’ intensity’ decision-making.
Results
Virtual reality training challenges trainees to respond to fuel fires relying on their knowledge only with no external instructions or warnings, the same way they would experience it in real situations. Interactive, immersive scenarios are easy to follow, understand, and repeat in any language and at every level.
Our monitoring tools allow tracking and evaluating each trainee’s performance. Data captured via the monitoring tools also showed higher involvement rates: 91% of learners mentioned they would like to see more VR training. 93% of them said they would recommend it to a colleague.
The most impressive achievement was the 35% reduction in training days and costs, boosting the info retention to 79% compared to 20% previously achieved with the traditional practices. The safety drills also resulted in zero injuries, followed by a rapid reduction in the real-world near-miss cases’ count.
