CONTEXT Emergencies in ships are stressful situations where crews must follow specific guidelines and procedures to assure their safety. According several studies, most of fatal accidents in fishing sector were due to lack of knowledge on devices and / or emergency procedures, or non-completion of periodic training exercises and simulations. To assure a correct reaction by the crew in emergency situations, trainings and simulations are needed, where crewmen are exposed to a series of scenarios to demonstrate they know the procedures, and how to execute them. VET entities in the marine sector don’t have nowadays any kind of tool that can help crewmen to learn the procedures of how to react in these situations, apart from guidelines and handbooks, and trainings onboard are difficult to plan since vessels are operating most of their time, either at sea or charging procedures. Virtual Reality (VR) environments are becoming a more effective learning tool, where pupils can experience these emergency situations in immersive environments, moving around a 3D universe and interacting with people and objects. OBJECTIVES A consortium of partners proposes to develop the project Virtual Reality for Maritime Emergencies: VR-ME, whose objectives are: - To develop an 3D immersive environment based on a trawler fishing boat, accessible through a Virtual Reality kit. - To develop a set of emergency situations based on the formal training requirements for crew and the most common and dangerous cases - Base on these elements, a training course will be created to tackle these emergency situations, in which the pupil will be tested to complete them in the 3D environment. This will serve to learn how to react and what procedures must be followed The course will be distributed in Open Access format, accessible to be used by downloading this software and using a 3D kit. The main target beneficiaries of this course will be: - Professionals of the fishing sector - VET providers and academies in the fishing sector and work safety - Public & private Entities working in labour safety - Professional Associations of fishermen PARTICIPANTS: The consortium is formed by a set of entities combining VET providers and representatives of the fishing sector: - Institut Maritime de Prévention- Applicant (France): The main training entity for labour safety in the french maritime sector - SGS TECNOS (Spain) is the world leader in certification and regulation. A renowned training company specially focused on work safety - ARVI (Spain) The fishing Vessel Owners´ Co-operative of the Port of Vigo, - SQ LEARN (Greece) expert developers of Virtual Reality tools for VET - Pelagic Freezer-trawler Association (Netherlands) represents the interests of several trawler companies - EUROPECHE (Belgium): The main representative of the fishing industry in Europe ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY The main output for this project will be t a training programe for Maritime Emergencies in vessel, whose central axis will be the VR simulator of the procedures to be followed in the most common emergencies onboard a fishing vessel. It will be developed in the following steps: IO1- Maritime emergencies and procedures. Risk analysis and adaptability to simulator: The project will start with a study of the maritime emergencies in fishing vessels. Partner will list which emergencies should be selected according to several criteria, will develop the procedures to be followed and finally will write these procedures in a language to be converted to a VR simulator. IO2- Maritime emergencies simulator development: Based on the emergencies an procedures detected in the previous step, partners will develop the VR environment where the user moves inside a ship and has to face several emergency scenarios. IO3- Testing, translation and production of complementary materials: Finally the consortium will complement and improve the simulator with several tests with the final beneficiaries to get their feedback, producing the handbook to manage the software properly, complementing the simulator with the training program to be offered offer in a bundled package, and translatingall contents to partners’ languages. EXPECTED RESULTS IMPACT AND LONGER TERM BENEFITS With this project, the consortium aims to: - Prepare fishermen to better face emergency situations onboard - Decrease of accidents and fatalities rate - Got towards a harmonization of emergency onboard procedures - Increase computer literacy of fishing professionals and the digitalization in the sector
The main objectives, VR-ME, were: - The development of a 3D immersive environment based on a trawler fishing boat, where anyone can accede using a computer and a VR kit. - To develop a set of emergency situations based on the formal training requirements for the crew, to be implemented in the 3D immersive environment - To create a training course to tackle these emergency situations, in which the pupil was tested by completing them in the 3D environment. The pupil can be placed in environments with the main emergency cases and procedures that must be followed to address them. This serves to learn how to react and what procedures must be followed. - To distribute this course in Open Access format, aimed at maritime schools, vocational training centers, maritime cooperatives and crews, who are able to use it by downloading this software and using a 3D kit EXPECTED RESULTS IMPACT AND LONGER-TERM BENEFITS With this project, the consortium aims to: - Prepare fishermen to face emergency situations better onboard - Decrease of accidents and fatalities rate - Got towards harmonization of emergency onboard procedures - Increase computer literacy of fishing professionals and the digitalization in the sector
Emergencies in ships are stressful situations where crews must follow specific guidelines and procedures to assure their safety. Most of the fatal accidents in the fishing sector were due to a lack of knowledge of devices and/or emergency procedures, or non-completion of periodic training exercises and simulations. Emergency procedures should be followed in stressful situations, in a context of nervousness and confusion, where it’s not easy to remember and follow the theoretical concepts. To assure a correct reaction by the crew in emergency situations, training and simulations are needed, where crewmen are exposed to a series of scenarios to demonstrate they know the procedures and how to execute them. VET entities in the marine sector don’t have nowadays any kind of tool that can help crewmen to learn the procedures of how to react in these situations, apart from guidelines and handbooks, and training onboard are difficult to plan since vessels are operating most of the time, either at sea or charging procedures. Virtual Reality environments are becoming an effective learning tool where pupils can experience these emergency situations in immersive environments, moving around a 3D universe and interacting with people and objects