In the practice of occupational safety, corrective ergonomics is still the dominating approach, which means that deficits in the design of work systems are corrected retroactively, resulting in high effort and expense. In product development, however, the approach of prospective ergonomics is gaining more and more acceptance. Here, already in early development phases, design aspects are evaluated
... [Show full abstract] on the basis of digital prototypes. To represent these aspects in a realistic way, the projection and interaction techniques of Virtual Reality (VR) are applied. The present paper deals with the application of this approach to occupational safety. The paper presents the results of a laboratory experiment where an application scenario comparable to the typical product development processes was realised. Participants in the experiment were given the task to analyse a computer workstation represented in Virtual Reality with respect to ergonomic design deficiencies. In doing so, three conditions were realised using different stereoscopic projection systems, a projection table and two head-mounted displays (HMDs). The evaluation results achieved under these VR conditions were compared to those of a fourth group of participants that analysed an equivalent real-world computer workstation (real-world condition). With regard to the accuracy of the evaluation results, no systematic differences between the four conditions could be observed. The time required for the performance of the evaluation was longer under the VR conditions, compared to that in the real-world condition, with a more pronounced difference for the projection table condition than for the two HMD conditions However, the magnitude of these differences was of an order that did not challenge the practical value of applying VR techniques. From the results it is concluded that VR techniques are appropriate to support the implementation of the prospective approach in the practice of occupational safety Besides positive effects on the working conditions, also economical benefits can be realised - one of the main incentives that spurred the application of VR techniques in product development.