Home // International Journal On Advances in Intelligent Systems, volume 4, numbers 3 and 4, 2011 // View article

Virtual Reality Technologies: A Way to Verify and Design Dismantling

Authors:
Caroline Chabal
Jean-François Mante
Jean-Marc Idasiak

Keywords: virtual reality; dismantling operation; haptic interface; accessibility study; remote handling; collision detection; interactivity; real-time

Abstract:
The CEA must manage the end of its nuclear fuel cycle facilities’ lifetime. Cleansing and dismantling actions are among its priorities. In order to address these issues, the CEA has created a dismantling division, which runs an R&D program to provide innovative tools. Intervention scenario simulation is one of these R&D projects, enabling defined scenarios to be run, their suitability for the environment or scenario key points to be verified, taking into account unexpected situations and providing technical answers. Simulation is a good means of visualizing and therefore understanding constraints, of testing different alternatives, and is a way to train workers prior to interventions. This paper describes an application of such a technology: dismantling a chemical cell in the APM (Marcoule Pilot Workshop) facility at Marcoule (France). This highly radioactive cell will be dismantled by a remote handling system using the Maestro slave arm. An immersive room has helped to design the dismantling scenarios. The article presents all the pieces of equipment in detail. Then, we focus on the processes of building the 3D model, especially the photogrammetric study step. Next, the software development we have done to couple the Maestro with a haptic interface and its carrier with game joysticks is described. All the remote handling is controlled in real time and with interactivity and detection collision. Thanks to force feedback and visual immersion, accessibility, operational trajectories and maintainability on the carrier have been verified. The overall scenario has been tested and problems have been found, which have meant modifications and updates of the final scenario to guarantee the system will work properly. The results are very encouraging. Finally, the perspectives for the project are mentioned, especially worker training and radioactive dose rate simulation.

Pages: 343 to 356

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2011. Used with permission.

Publication date: April 30, 2012

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2679