Exploring the Impact of Immersion on Situational Awareness and Trust in Remotely Monitored Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships

Abstract

This thesis examines how Situational Awareness (SA) and Trust, along with some exploratory variables, were affected by different immersion levels in maritime remote monitoring. To examine this a simulated Shore Control Centre (SCC) interface for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) was constructed, which had an autonomous container ship traversing the arctic with robotic aids. Three query sets were asked per simulation run, which facilitated tracking how SA, Trust, and Motion Sickness (MS) evolved over time. Three different virtual reality (VR) interfaces were used; Non-Immersive VR (NVR), Semi-immersive VR (SVR), and Immersive VR (IVR). The simulation and query sets were performed on a counterbalanced within-subjects user study with 39 participants. The results illustrated various trade-offs -with NVR showing higher user preference, SVR showing signs of higher SA, and IVR showing moderate Trust but increased MS. Understanding these trade-offs between immersion levels is a requisite step for designing future SCCs.