MOL announced the addition of a new training session on “Snap-back zones” to its mariner safety education program using virtual reality (VR) goggles and VR technology. The tool aims to improve seafarers’ risk perception by enabling them to visualize and virtually experience onboard accidents.
Namely, VR and AR are the new smart technologies which are going to transform the future of shipping and of other industries as well.
This new training session by MOL will enable seafarers enhance their perception on risk and allow them to visualise and have a real-life-experience concerning onboard accidents with the help of high-tech computer graphics. More specifically, the training will help seafarers understand the danger that leads to unsafe behaviour onboard and as a result will improve their safety awareness.
As far as the ‘Snap-back zones’ session is concerned, it shows a tow line between a tugboat and a merchant vessel breaking, snapping back, and hitting a seafarer in the back with great force. This kind of accident is difficult to be represented with details because it can happen behind the seafarers. Yet, the VR-based content has a better training experience since the seafarers can alter the direction and perspective.
This training project is the fourth in the series, amongst ‘Preventing accidental falls’, ‘Cargo falling from cranes’, and ‘Response to onboard fires’.
Finally, MOL’s goal is to reassure the safe, stable cargo transport. This will be achieved by combining the fact that the front-line seafarers are in need of real-life-training and accomplishing it with the help of technology.
