Analysis and validation center for ITER RH maintenance scenarios in a virtual environment

A facility for detailed simulation of maintenance processes in the ITER Hot Cell Facility (HCF) has been taken into operation. The facility mimics the Remote Handling (RH) work-cells as are presently foreseen. Novel virtual reality (VR) technology, extended with a physics engine is used to create a realistic setting in which a team of Remote Handling (RH) operators can interact with a virtual Hot Cell environment. The physics engine is used to emulate the Hot Cell behavior and to provide tactile feed-back of the (virtual) slave. Multi-operator maintenance scenarios can be developed and tested in virtual reality. Complex interactions between the RH operators and the HCF control system software will be tested. Task performance will be quantified and operational resource consumption will be estimated.