ACARP project C16013 “Reduction of Errors in Bolting Control Design”.


Commenced April 1, 2007. The project utilises a virtual environment to determine the optimal design of controls such as found on underground mining equipment. The objective is to determine the likely effect on injury risk of the recommendations made in the revision of MDG35 regarding shape coding, control layout, and directional control-response relationships. The specific research questions which need to be answered are: (i) what are the consequences of mirrored and non-mirrored control layouts for error rates and reaction time?; (ii) what are the effects of location coding, shape coding and length coding on error rates and reaction time?; (iii) what are the directional control-responses stereotypes in different planes?, and their relative strengths?; and (iv) what are the consequences of layout, coding and control-response relationships on training time, error rates and reaction time during virtual reality and physical simulations of tasks analogous to bolting? The project is being undertaken in collaboration with staff of the Perception and Motor Systems Laboratory, University of Queensland; and the Mining Injury Prevention Branch, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (NIOSH PRL).


Project completed March 30, 2009. The final report is now available (C16013final.pdf).