XR AI Spotlight VR Vs CAVE Ship Simulators at MARIN
Feb 19, 2026
Giorgio Ballestin, Technical Product Manager and XR specialist at MARIN, oversees XR and digital‑twin simulation for maritime research. He discusses MARIN’s move from large CAVE and motion‑platform bridges to hybrid VR setups. Topics include VR adoption hurdles like cybersickness and interaction design, how hydrodynamics models pair with Unreal visualization, multi‑user hybrid tests, and preference for tracked physical props over camera MR.
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Hybrid CAVE And VR Fleet Simulations
- MARIN's simulators are primarily CAVE-based bridge systems with motion platforms and are now being extended with VR for deck and off-bridge tasks.
- The different simulators connect so multiple crews can operate simultaneously for fleet-scale scenarios.
Why CAVEs Still Matter
- CAVE systems trade higher cost for reliability and physical affordances that match real-world bridges.
- VR adds flexibility but faces adoption limits from cybersickness and immature interaction design.
Deckhand Safety Trial In Mixed Setup
- Giorgio describes a mixed session where two users are on the bridge and one VR user is on deck during motion-platform testing.
- They evaluated whether a deckhand could safely perform tasks across varying sea states on a not-yet-built ship.