Halden Virtual Reality Centre

Applying advanced visualisation technologies and human factors to solve real-world challenges

Welcome!

This site is a project support site for HRP members, bilateral project partners, and other existing customers of products or services.

Most of the information that you can access via these pages that is of general interest is stored on the main www.ife.no/vr site and is only linked to from here for the convenience of those that have this site bookmarked from the past.

Focus Areas

Institutt for energiteknikk has over thirty years of experience in the management and visualisation of information related to the design, operation, and maintenance of complex systems. Through the application of our extensive knowlege of human factors and user-interface design, our goal is to enable end-users to gain rapid insights based on appropriately processed information.

Through our research, we conceive and test techniques that we later utilise in our products and bilateral projects to deliver high-value solutions that solve complex challenges rather than introduce new problems.

User-centered Design and Human Factors Review

The development of control room philosophies based on user-centered design principles and task analysis is one of IFE's major areas of human factors research.

Using VR technology and software systems developed by Halden VR Centre, control room prototypes can be created, which through an iterative refinement process can result in a more successful final design. This flexibility can reduce the time needed for the design process and permits the testing of many variations of a design at relatively low cost. In addition to our research activities in this area, we have developed collaborative software tools that support both layout design and human factors reviews for the nuclear and petroleum industries.

Decommissioning and Outage Planning

As more nuclear installations begin to reach the end of their useful lives, the number of decommissioning projects around the world are increasing, and the technical aspects of the decommissioning process are becoming better understood. Decommissioning is still, however, a challenging task, partly because of the complexity of the structures to be dismantled and partly because parts of the plant are contaminated. Major issues of the decommissioning process include maintaining a high level of safety during the dismantling process and maintaining project schedules. The tools that we have developed for planning decommissioning activities can also be used for planning regular maintenance activities.

Operations and Maintenance Training

Training is one of the most common applications of interactive visual simulation. A safe virtual environment can be used to simulate a real environment that is either too dangerous, complex, or expensive to train in. Virtual environments can therefore be used to increase safety standards, improve efficiency, and reduce overall training costs. We conduct research and develop solutions for training operators and engineers to help them comprehend and master complex activities, in particular those where safety is an important issue.