Abstract

Over the past decade, training in virtual reality for military and disaster preparedness has been increasingly recognized as an important adjunct to traditional modalities of real-life drills. However, there are only a few existing solutions that provide immersive virtual reality training and improve learning through an increased amount of presence. In this paper, we present a novel and flexible Virtual Reality (VR) training system for military and first responders that enables realistic multi-user training in large environments. We show how the requirements of peer stakeholders for disaster relief with an explicit focus on CBRN disaster preparedness transfer to the concept, current implementation and future features of our system. The development and integration of multiple technologies allows a wide variety of interaction and collaboration within our immersive system. In addition, we demonstrate the training capabilities of our proposed system with a multi-user training scenario, simulating a CBRN crisis. Results from our technical and user evaluation with 13 experts in CBRN response from the Austrian Armed Forces (National Defence Academy & Competence Center NBC Defence) indicate strong applicability and user acceptance. Over 80% of the participants agreed "much" or "very much" that the presented system can be used to support training for CBRN-crisis preparedness.

Reference

Göllner, J., Peer, A., Meurers, C., Wurzer, G., Schönauer, C., & Kaufmann, H. (2019). Virtual Reality CBRN Defence. In Meeting Proceedings of the Simulation and Modelling Group Symposium 171 (pp. 1–25). STO. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12708/57930