가상공간 시뮬레이션을 활용한 고령자 행동특성 기반 계단 낙상사고 평가

Evaluation of staircase accidents using 3D virtual simulation based on behavioral characteristics of the elderly

Due to the rapidly aging population, the death rate of elderly people by safety accidents has been increasing. In particular, precautions are needed for falls prevention because they either directly or indirectly cause death. In the case of elderly people, most of the fall accidents occur in dense residential areas, and particularly, the staircase poses a risk of falling. Therefore, a safety assessment should be performed from the design phase. However, in general, staircases are designed using existing stair data or only aims to satisfy the installation criteria. Laws and regulations only define minimum requirements for safety, so it is not possible to prevent fall accidents even if they satisfy the requirements. Therefore, this study proposes a simulation-based method for evaluating the safety of staircases. The behavioral characteristics of the elderly are implemented to an virtual user in a virtual space including staircases, and fall accidents are evaluated by the evaluation logic related to the behavioral characteristics. The result shows that the safety of staircases can be preevaluated and reflected on the design to reduce the possibility of fall accidents of the elderly.