IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - January 2020 - 50

scene and help them understand
the principles and use of the firedetection and firefighting systems.

Results and Discussion
To evaluate the training effect of
Ship crews usually
the HMD IVR METS, 30 marinework cooperatively,
engineering students were selected
to test it. They tried the desktop VR
Automatic Evaluation
so collaborative
METS and HMD IVR METS, respecTo objectively evaluate the effectraining is an
tively, and filled out questionnaires
tiveness of the HMD IVR METS, a
about the systems to evaluate how
knowledge base was established
important part of
interesting, easy to use, interactive,
in accordance with the relevant
marine-engineer
and immersive they were. Each
standards, and a fuzzy compretraining.
aspect was evaluated on a scale
hensive- eva luation a lgor ithm
from zero to 10 (Figure 4).
was applied. The evaluation knowlWe found that the HMD IVR
edge base involves several as METS
had much higher interest and
pects, including cold-ship starting,
immersion scores than the desktop VR METS. The stuengine standby operation and constant-speed navigadents needed to make specific physical movements during
tion, emergency procedures, and equipment and systhe operating process that were similar to natural behavtem fault analysis and elimination. The system can
ior, and it greatly aroused their interest. The HMD IVR
record all of the operational information created by the
METS exposed the students to a closed virtual environtrainees. When the evaluation is finished, the operament, and the lack of interference from the outside world
tional information is compared with the evaluation
made it easy to achieve full immersion. As for the ease of
standard in the database, and a score is computed.
use and interactivity, the HMD IVR METS had a slightly
This method can establish all of the test scenarios stiphigher score than the desktop VR METS. The desktop VR
ulated in the examination syllabus, which not only
METS relied entirely on mouse-and-keyboard operation,
guarantees the objectivity and fairness of its results
while the HMD IVR METS required some natural limb
but also improves its efficiency. Taking container-ship
movements. The students needed to memorize fewer rules
training as an example, there are 44 predefined scenarto use the HMD IVR METS, which reduced the system's
ios in the system for trainee evaluation, 1,386 malfunctions, and 794 state variables that can be changed by
difficulty and enhanced its interactivity. However, be the instructor. Of course, users can change a large
cause the HMD IVR METS included interaction with the
number of variables by operating the machinery, since
handles, which were somewhat similar to the mouse, the
the system incorporates almost all of the equipment
difference in the ease-of-use and interactivity scores
in the ER. In the simulator, more than 20,000 varibetween the systems was not large.
ables are available for interaction. For detailed inforAfter experiencing both systems, 27 of the 30 students
mation about the process of building the evaluation
preferred the HMD IVR METS and would rather use it in
scenarios and algorithm, please refer to Cao [20].
the future. The students also suggested some limitations of
the system, which are as follows:
◆ Users may get tired and even experience vertigo with
long-time utilization of the HMD IVR METS. The solution to this problem depends on the development of the
HMD technology.
Interesting
◆ Only one student can participate in the training program at a time; collaborative training is unavailable.
Easy to Use
The main reason for this shortcoming lies in the
technical limitation of the HMD hardware. On one
hand, the positioning base station cannot accommoInteractive
date many HMD devices at once. On the other hand,
the intertwining of the signal cables prohibits very
many HMD devices from fitting in a limited space.
Immersive
With the development of the hardware, especially
the advent of 5G communication technology, these
0
2
4
6
8
10
problems may be solved. Under the current techniScore
cal conditions, we must supply each trainee with a
HMD IVR
Desktop VR
set of equipment if a group of students wants to
work at the same time. Ship crews usually work
cooperatively, so collaborative training is an imporFigure 4. The evaluation results for the two VR training
tant part of marine-engineer training. Therefore,
systems.
50

IEEE SYSTEMS, MAN, & CYBERNETICS MAGAZINE Janu ar y 2020

IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - January 2020

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