Evaluation of a virtual reality system for ship handling simulations

Description

The assessment of virtual reality ship handling simulators is extremely important to guide the research in the field, since the prolonged use can affect both the performance and the experience of users. Here, we evaluate a ship simulator based on two different visualization setups: a non-immersive system based on standard monitors, and an immersive system that uses a virtual reality head mounted display. We did an experimental session of manoeuvring tasks performed by 20 volunteers, specifically students of a naval academy. To evaluate the system, we analyzed three different aspects: performances, level of cybersickness and sense of presence. The results show that: (i) expert users are able to follow the predefined path in a quite accurate manner; (ii) both systems do not introduce anxiety, stress or particular undesired effects, and the use of immersive virtual reality itself does not explain the increase of user malaise state; (iii) immersive virtual reality systems allow users to feel more involved and present in the simulation scenario.

Additional details