Exploring Vibrotactile Displays to Support Hazard Awareness in Simulated Excavation Tasks

Safe and effective execution of excavation operations and other high-risk construction tasks requires operators to perform multiple concurrent tasks, including maintaining continuous awareness of coworkers and other hazards in their surroundings. Given the heavy demand on workers’ visual and auditory resources in these contexts, vibrotactile feedback systems offer a potential solution for enhancing awareness without overburdening vision or audition. Aim: This study evaluated the impact of vibrotactile feedback regarding proximity to hazards on multitasking performance and cognitive workload in a simulated excavation task environment. Method: Twenty-four participants performed a joystick-controlled navigation task and a concurrent mental spatial rotation task. Proximity to hazards in the navigation task was conveyed via different encodings of vibrotactile feedback: No Vibration, Intensity Modulation, Pulse Duration, and Pulse Spacing. Performance metrics, including obstacle collisions, target hits, contact time, and accuracy were assessed alongside perceived workload. Results: Intensity-modulated feedback significantly reduced obstacle collisions and contact time compared to No Vibration, and additionally supported the lowest levels of experienced workload. No significant effects were observed for feedback conditions on spatial rotation accuracy, suggesting that vibrotactile feedback can effectively guide navigation and excavation control tasks while supporting general spatial awareness. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the potential for vibrotactile feedback to enhance navigation performance and hazard awareness, providing actionable insights for the development of multimodal safety systems in construction and other high-demand operational environments.