Key UC Contact
What We Did
We have been working closely with FENZ to develop and evaluate new virtual reality simulations to train firefighters in their specific roles, such as air attack supervisors (AAS). The role of the AAS is to assess the status of rural fires from the air, coordinating appropriate measures to fight the fire, and remain on sight in the air until the fire is under control. This is one example of what FENZ calls "high-risk, high-cost" tasks for which they have asked us to help in preparing novel training systems.
Who Was Involved
Three UC academic staff members and several PhD students are involved, with strong support from FENZ, who supported us with AAS trainees and instructors as participants in our user studies.
Why It Matters
Since (luckily) wildfires do not occur very often, FENZ personnel have limited opportunities for "live" training, and this is commonly limited to mock fire sites, with orange cones set up as the fire line and only one fixed-wing and one helicopter to coordinate. While no complete substitute for the live training they perform, our system allows them to alter many more important variables, such as time of day, terrain, number of and type aircraft, type of material that is burning, location of power lines, houses, and campsites, distance to water sources, number and type of ground assets, and more. The research we are doing is in showing that the virtual reality training experience induces as much stress as the live training and that more and varied training opportunities can lead to better preparedness.
Learn More
Clifford, R. M., McKenzie, T., Lukosch, S., Lindeman, R. W., & Hoermann, S. (2020, March). The Effects of Multi-sensory Aerial Firefighting Training in Virtual Reality on Situational Awareness, Workload, and Presence. In 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) (pp. 93-100). IEEE.
Clifford RMS., Engelbrecht H., Jung S., Oliver H., Billinghurst M., Lindeman RW. and Hoermann S. (2020) Aerial firefighter radio communication performance in a virtual training system: radio communication disruptions simulated in VR for Air Attack Supervision. Visual Computer http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00371-020-01816-6.
