We present the VROnSite platform that supports immersive training of first responder units’ on-site squad leaders. Our training platform is fully immersive, entirely untethered to ease use and provides two means of navigation—abstract and natural walking—to simulate stress and exhaustion, two important factors for decision making. With the platform’s capabilities, we close a gap in prior art for first responder training. Our research is closely interlocked with stakeholders from multiple fire brigades to gather early feedback in an iterative design process. In this paper, we present the system’s design rationale, provide insight into the process of training scenario development and present results of a user study with 41 squad leaders from the firefighting domain. Virtual disaster environments with two different navigation types were evaluated using quantitative and qualitative measures. Participants considered our platform highly suitable for training of decision making in complex first responder scenarios and results show the importance of the provided navigation technologies in this context.

我们提供了VROnSite平台，该平台支持对第一响应者单位的现场班长的沉浸式训练。我们的培训平台完全浸入水中，完全不受束缚，易于使用，并提供两种导航方式（抽象和自然行走）来模拟压力和疲劳，这是决策的两个重要因素。利用该平台的功能，我们弥合了现有技术中急救人员培训的空白。我们的研究与多个消防队的利益相关者紧密联系在一起，以便在迭代设计过程中收集早期反馈。在本文中，我们介绍了系统的设计原理，提供了对训练场景开发过程的见解，并介绍了来自消防领域的41名班长的用户研究结果。使用定量和定性方法对具有两种不同导航类型的虚拟灾难环境进行了评估。参与者认为我们的平台非常适合在复杂的第一响应者场景中进行决策培训，结果表明在这种情况下所提供的导航技术的重要性。