VR-based Training on Handling LNG Related Emergency in the Maritime Industry

The maritime industry is switching to new types of fuel such as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). On one hand, these kinds of fuel are more sustainable to the environment, on the other hand, training on handling such fuel safely and dealing with emergency situation is necessary. Videos and lecture-based learning is commonly used to deliver such knowledge to the maritime trainees. In recent years, the advances in Virtual Reality (VR) have brought new opportunities to such training. It provides an immersive while safe environment for training on certain operations that are extraordinary or dangerous in real life. It also allows the learners to practice the tasks repeatedly. The VR-based training is mostly used for improving technical skills, however, to guarantee a more efficient and better assessment of trainee's performance, nontechnical skills such as decision making, situation awareness, vigilance are needed to be assessed and trained as well. In this paper, a VR-based LNG evacuation training system is presented. The system provides two training scenarios for learning the evacuation procedure. A novel human factors evaluation based on the behavioral data captured by VR was proposed and integrated with the training, which includes both technical and non-technical skills assessment. An experiment with 14 subjects was conducted to validate the human factors evaluation and to get feedback towards the VR-based training.