Postural and Physiological Responses to Induced Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Forklift Training

Virtual reality (VR) provides a safe, repeatable environment for forklift training, but cybersickness may limit adoption. This study evaluated postural and physiological responses linked to cybersickness during a VR forklift simulation. Twenty-two adults completed six randomized warehouse trials that varied by head-rotation complexity (yaw, yaw-pitch, and yaw-pitch-roll) and forklift height (ground or elevated). Cybersickness was measured using the Fast Motion Sickness scale, while postural sway, galvanic skin response (GSR), and skin temperature were continuously recorded. Repeated-measures ANOVAs showed significant effects of head-rotation complexity on postural sway. Center of Force (COF) area was 34.8% and 51.8% smaller during one-axis rotation than during two- and three-axis rotations. Participants reporting cybersickness showed a 170.6% increase in COF distance during three -axis versus one-axis trials. Elevated-height conditions further increased COF variance and anterior-posterior excursion. Overall, postural sway metrics may provide continuous, objective indicators of emerging cybersickness risk during VR forklift training.