Interactive tools for safety 4.0: Virtual ergonomics and serious games in tower automotive

This work focuses on an innovative training methodology based on the use of Virtual ergonomics and “serious games” in the field of occupational safety. Virtual Ergonomics was chosen as an effective and convincing tool for disseminating the culture of safety among the workers, while a “serious game” was developed to train operators on specific safety procedures and to verify their skills. The results of the experimentation in a real industrial case study showed that, compared to the traditional training methodology, multimedia contents and quantitative ergonomic analyses improve the level of attention and the awareness of the operators about their safety. On the other hand, Serious games turned out as promising tools to train the workers about safe operating procedures that are difficult to implement in a real working environment. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.