Comparative SWOT analysis of virtual reality and augmented reality ship passenger evacuation technologies.

The purpose of this paper was to assess the possibility of using modern technologies, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), to study the evacuation of passengers from ships. The evacuation of passengers from ships is usually studied from post-accident reports, laboratory or field experiments, and/or numerical modelling. Nowadays, with the rapid development of computer resources and wearable technology, evacuation can also be studied using VR or AR. The methods used in this paper for such assessments included a literature review (tools like Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar indexing platforms) and comparative strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis. The results demonstrated the great potential for the implementation of VR and AR technologies within the shipping industry, similar to how they have already found applications in the research of pedestrian evacuation from buildings or open spaces. Finally, recommendations for their use in ship passenger evacuation are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]