Virtual reality platform-based conceptual design and simulation of a hot cell facility

This study considered the hot cell facility of a large-scale batch-process-type nuclear facility. All the material-handling tasks in this facility are performed through teleoperation or automation because operators are prohibited from entering the hot cell owing to safety considerations. The majority of the material handling between the unit processes must be performed using pick-and-place-type manipulator systems, and the hot cell interior must be maintained using a wall-mounted mechanical master–slave system. In this study, a design method that combines layout optimization, a discrete event simulation (DES), and a virtual reality (VR) platform for hot cell facility design was developed. The practicality of the resulting process equipment layout and floor plan was verified for remote handling operations using the integrated DES-VR platform, thereby providing a detailed VR environment for process model reviews, design concept evaluation, operational schedule validation, and procedure testing based on “what-if” scenarios. An advantage of the proposed methodology over the conventional hot cell design approach is that the process simulation and facility design are performed collaboratively. Furthermore, the use of the developed system helped identify design issues that would not have been recognized until much later in the traditional design process. Furthermore, a survey was performed to assess the benefits of the proposed methodology for several design issues. The results indicated that the integrated DES-VR methodology was superior to traditional 2D and 3D computer-aided drawing approaches, particularly for material flow and obstacle checking because the synchronized motions of the physical components and equipment in the hot cell facility could be fully realized in the VR world. The proposed methodology could be regarded as effective for the design of a teleoperation-based nuclear facility integrated batch-process line comprising equipment with different functions, mechanical structures, feed mechanisms, and degrees of automation.