A Novel Networked Marine Engine Simulator for Crew Operation Examination with Auto Evaluation Using Virtual Reality Technology

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel marine engine simulator to make up the deficiency of the existing one in the aspects of crew´s operation exam and auto evaluation at home and abroad. Unlike traditional products, this new type of marine engine simulator doesn´t need any additional devices but a computer with virtual reality technology. The simulator mainly includes four parts, 3D marine engine simulation model, auto evaluation algorithm, question library and network communication platform. An operator can do scene roaming, human-computer interaction and operation examination just with keyboard, mouse or even Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) if economic conditions permitted. Besides virtual reality operation, auto evaluation is another attractive highlight. With the fuzzy evaluation algorithm proposed in this paper, a reasonable score can be given automatically according to the operations done by crew at the end of the examination. Further more, a number of simulators as examination terminals are networked by communicating with the examination center, forming a crew examination and evaluation network platform, being a powerful tool in crew training, examination and evaluation.