AR-Enhanced Immersive Training for Maritime Crisis Management and Emergency Decision-Making

Abstract

Maritime emergency response training relies on expensive live fire drills costing $12,000-$18,000 per session with inherent safety risks, limited scenario variety, and scalability constraints serving maximum 12 students per drill, yet traditional simulator-based alternatives lack physical movement and coordination essential for muscle memory development in confined vessel spaces. This research presents the design and validation of augmented reality training systems overlaying digital emergency scenarios onto physical maritime training environments, enabling safe, scalable, high-fidelity crisis response training at Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Pelayaran Jakarta. Employing design science research methodology with qualitative stakeholder evaluation, the study engaged maritime safety instructors (n=14), emergency response trainers (n=8), and students (n=24) through structured interviews and controlled training experiments examining skill development, learning transfer, and cost-effectiveness. The Microsoft HoloLens 2-based AR platform deployed across engine room simulators, vessel training compartments, and firefighting facilities generated immersive emergency scenarios including engine room fires, flooding, toxic gas releases, and man-overboard situations with real-time scenario adaptation based on trainee decisions. Thematic analysis revealed strong support for AR training enhancement, identifying critical themes of psychomotor skill development, scenario variety expansion, and training accessibility improvement. Pilot implementation with 180 students across 8-month period demonstrated equivalent learning outcomes to live drills on practical assessment scores (83.7 versus 84.2, p=0.61 not significant) while achieving 97% cost reduction ($47 versus $1,500 per student), 340% scenario variety expansion (17 versus 5 annual scenarios), and 450% student throughput increase (2,160 versus 480 annual training hours), contributing validated AR architectures and empirical evidence supporting immersive technology adoption in maritime safety education addressing training scalability, cost efficiency, and pedagogical effectiveness imperatives.