Western Australia’s leading water utility has embraced virtual reality (VR) technology in a bid to improve water infrastructure designs, including health and safety considerations for wastewater treatment plants.
Water Corporation is using VR technology to simulate how water and wastewater infrastructure will function before it’s built.
WA Water and Innovation Minister Dave Kelly said the VR technology allows for more realistic pre-build safety checks, but also saves time and money by eliminating costly re-designs.
"Creating a virtual reality model of a design allows workers to 'walk through' a new asset, which helps to identify potential safety concerns or faults, while still in the design phase,” Kelly said.
"This is a big step forward in the way the Water Corporation can improve engineering to eliminate potential safety issues during the design process, which saves time and money.”
The utility used VR technology to take operators through the 3D design of the wastewater recycling plants at Kellerberrin and Wyalkatchem. The operators then provided feedback to improve the design from an occupational health and safety perspective.
"While the technology is not new, the way it is being used for this purpose is. It is great to see technology used to improve efficiency and safety for workers,” Kelly said.
Water Corporation is currently assessing the use of the VR technology to assist in training and the testing of maintenance programs.
Hear more about virtual reality:
https://omny.fm/shows/australianwater/andrew-rozycki-on-virtual-reality-training
by Water Source
