Haptically-enabled VR-based immersive fire fighting training simulator

© 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Firefighting is a physically demanding task that requires extensive training. With the rising risks of global warming and its evident effects on spawning bush fire, there is an increasing need for recruiting new fire fighters. This imposes an unprecedented challenge of fast-tracking training procedures, especially in rural environments where most bush fires occur. Additionally, the current manual training procedures do not take into consideration the immersion factor, without which a novice fire fighter may be overwhelmed when facing a bush fire for the first time. This challenge has motivated us to harness the power of virtual reality and develop a portable firefighting training system. The developed firefighting training system, presented in this paper, is haptically enabled to allow the trainees to experience the jet reaction forces from the hose. The system also features realistic water dispersion and interaction with fire and smoke particles via accurate particle physics modelling.