Posted on February 18, 2026
Toward an Intelligent, Augmented Reality-Enabled Maritime Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities
The Augmented Reality (AR/VR/MR) team of American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) SMEs and Texas A&M researchers has made great strides since their collaboration started over 2 years ago. Their focus is on quantifying the safety of rapidly-evolving technology for inspectors and surveyors, such as headsets, particularly Head-Mounted Displays.
The excellent team includes ABS’: Whitney Mantooth, Eric VanDerHorn, and Vince Hernandez.
At Texas A&M, the sublime team is very long, but here are a few names: Edgar Rojas Muñoz, Thomas Ferris, Katherine Bezanson, Graciela Camacho Fidalgo, Lara Soberanis
The use of AR technology to increase the effectiveness of marine surveys could enable (and has enabled) real-time remote observations and feedback by subject matter experts. However, these Head-Mounted Displays can introduce safety and situational awareness concerns of workers wearing the devices. The on-going LOI project aims at quantifying and minimizing the risk as workers perform routine tasks using AR technologies in industrial settings.
Hundreds of participants have been used in tests to collect data from motion capture cameras, pressure and vibration sensors, inertial measurements, eye tracking, heart rates, etc. Experimental data collection compares the performance, workload, and safety effects of AR wearables under varied configurations (off, on with virtual panels, on with behavior alerts, on with AR safety solutions) during execution of routine tasks in a simulated ship environment.
The SNAME Offshore Symposium in Houston on March 31, 2026 will feature two Augmented Reality research update talks in the special session for the Laboratory for Ocean Innovation (LOI) at Department of Ocean Engineering at Texas A&M University.
