CAT & Genny VR training
A custom 3D-printed CAT controller and a Meta Quest 3 headset let Murphy operatives practise locating buried services in scenarios no training pit can safely recreate.
Murphy Group delivers major utilities and infrastructure work across the UK, which means their operatives are regularly breaking ground near live buried services. Before anyone digs, a cable avoidance tool and signal generator, the CAT and Genny, are used to locate what is underneath. We built Murphy a VR training experience that teaches and tests correct CAT and Genny technique, using a real, custom-built CAT controller the trainee holds and sweeps exactly as they would on site.
Utility strikes are a recognised industry-wide safety problem. Striking a buried cable or gas main can kill, and it happens across the sector every year despite decades of procedure and toolbox talks.
The training gap is practical: you cannot bury live services under a training yard, so conventional CAT and Genny training relies on simulated pits and limited setups that never quite match the messy reality of a live street. Murphy wanted their operatives to build real scanning technique and judgement in the situations that actually cause strikes, without any of the risk, and asked us how VR could get them there.
The trainee puts on a Meta Quest 3 and picks up a real CAT controller, a custom hardware prop we designed and 3D printed to match the weight and handling of the genuine tool. It is fully tracked, so every sweep the trainee makes with the physical device is mirrored precisely in the virtual world.
Inside the headset, the trainee stands on a virtual street and works a scan exactly as they would on site: setting the mode, sweeping the ground, connecting the Genny, and interpreting the signal to trace what lies beneath. Because the ground is virtual, the training can do what reality cannot, revealing the buried services so trainees see exactly what their scan did and did not find.
The experience runs in guided mode, which coaches correct technique step by step, and unguided mode, which tests the operative across multiple scenarios without help. Scenarios vary the services, the ground, and the conditions, so technique has to generalise rather than be memorised.
We delivered the project in phases with Murphy's health and safety team. Phase 1 established the core experience and the custom tracked CAT hardware. Phase 2, completed in July 2026, expanded the scenarios and modes, and was demonstrated to Murphy operatives in July 2026. Phase 3 is now being scoped.
Building the physical controller alongside the software was the defining decision. Sweeping a real, correctly weighted tool trains the muscle memory that a pair of standard VR controllers never could.
The operative demo of Phase 2 in July 2026 drew strongly positive feedback from the people the training is for, and Phase 3 is being scoped on the back of it.
The project has been entered for the Construction News Awards and the Water Industry Awards.
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