Learning curves experimented over a virtual port: Simulation training and its impact in terminal activities

The aim of this work is to define and test a Learning Curve (LC) related to the training activity performed by the Simulation Team Virtual Port (STVP). This simulator has been developed by Simulation Team partners in order to reproduce a synthetic port environment where users can test real processes in a virtual reality, without the need of using a real equipment. STVP makes use of several platform where trainees are able to work both stand-alone and collaborating while integrated in a HLA federation; the simulator enable the use of different type of equipment, (such as virtual cranes, virtual stacker, virtual trucks,etc), cooperating in real time in the same synthetic environment. The approach proposed is based on the fact that when the training starts, the system creates a mission for each federate assigning a task/sequence of the activity to be performed; then STVP keeps trace of the schedule of all the operations, giving a feedback that evaluates both quality and duration of the job.