TMCnet News
Goup's virtual 3-D tour simulates nuke plant walk-through for new inspectorsApr 02, 2011 (The Santa Fe New Mexican - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Novice nuclear-facility inspectors for the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency don't have to face down zombies, but they still have plenty of real worries. How will they, as new kids on the nuke block, know whether a fuel rod is loaded correctly the first time they tour a facility? Can they tell if the facility manager is lying about safety measures? Where do they find paperwork they need to review? Most importantly, what if they need the bathroom? Thanks to a team of scientists and graphic artists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, inspectors can test-drive their inspection with a virtual tour of the nuclear facility before they ever set foot in the place. As virtual inspectors, they can walk through the facility and familiarize themselves with every inch -- the ceiling, the floor, the nooks and crannies, and the placards on doors (so they'll know where to find the bathroom). They also can open file drawers and pick up pieces of equipment. The virtual tour was the brainchild of mathematician and computer scientist Kelly Michel, fellow LANL researchers, and video-game designers from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Working out of a tiny trailer perched precariously on a canyon edge in Los Alamos, the team has taken nuclear training to a whole new level -- and had fun at it. Three people developed 40 virtual models in three years. Michel was hired nine years ago by the IAEA to train inspectors. There is no formal certification, but the inspectors have to pass Michel's test before they are sent into the field. "In training these inspectors, I had to put them in a facility without actually being able to physically put them in the facility," Michel said. "For their exercises and to verify they were learning the skills I was teaching them, I needed to have them do a practice and show me they knew what they were doing." During the first four years, "the practical exercise did not go super stellar," she said. "In the fifth year, we introduced a virtual nuclear facility. That virtual nuclear facility was very basic and amateurish, but it got the job done. Their scores jumped 35 percent. I thought, 'we're onto something.' " That first virtual tour was a simple walk-through. Now, the graphics and virtual program are so sophisticated the inspectors-in-training can walk behind a panel and see what a camera couldn't see. They can see how a person might sneak something into the facility past the camera. They even can see reflections on the floor and inspect the ceiling. "We're cognitively projecting them into the space and letting them experience it on their own terms," she said. "I'm not guiding them. They're not watching a video tape. They're learning it in a manner that makes the most sense to them." Michel said the team has married the power of video-gaming technology with decades of data from nuclear facilities and LANL engineering. According to Michel, video-game designers have spent the last 20 years perfecting user interface -- how to engage a person mentally in a game. "To bring it beyond just what a gaming house could do and make it valuable as a training tool, we married laboratory physics, engineering and science with these 3-D virtual models," she said. Inspectors are in facilities housing something almost as scary as zombies: radioactive nuclear material. "That virtualized nuclear material has to behave like real nuclear material. Does lead shield it, or does concrete shield it? Air has to act like air, concrete like concrete, lead like lead and a human body like a human body. It is one thing to say, 'Here is a piece of nuclear material, and there's gamma rays coming from it.' It's another if you can give that to someone in a virtual world and they can see the gamma rays coming out of it, which is what we do." For Michel, it made perfect sense to call in the expertise of artists to help develop the virtual training program, called the Virtual Simulation Baseline Experience. Michel has a background in applied mathematics, computer science and astrodynamics. "I always felt the arts and science complimented each other very well, that they were not this separate, unequal set of studies," Michel said. "I always looked for opportunities to bring scientists and engineers together with visual artists to bring ideas to life. What comes from the collaboration is extremely unique." The program is lightweight, works on PCs or Macs, and can run on computers up to five years old, Michel said. The program also can be used to teach ways of addressing threats or security risks. "Security forces could use it to practice how they would deal with a terrorist or diffuse a bomb or with a crowd of protesters. The program can create emotional challenges as well as physical ones," Michel said. Teams can use the virtual tour program to rehearse their inspections or security methods. Nuclear inspectors from the IAEA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission go in as a team. Three other members of the creative team work in an office next to Michel's. Art Director Adam Watkins is an associate professor of 3-D animation at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Elise Elfman and Jacob Green are Watkins' former students, now helping design the virtual tours. Brian Dickens is the software engineer who develops codes and scripts for the program. Building 3-D designs for a virtual game or tour takes a lot of research and an eye for detail, said Watkins, who's working on his sixth book. "There's this idea that artists sit down and magically start to draw," Watkins said. "That's complete fiction, especially with 3-D animation. We get the proposal, and then we spend days or even weeks simply doing research. Then we lay it out with pencil on paper before we ever touch a computer. A computer is just a tool and it is at the end of the process." Viewing the virtual tour on a large screen takes up 90 percent of a person's field of view. "The brain can't help but think that's real, if it is given the right cues," Michel said. The neurons retain a memory of what's seen. When an inspector actually visits the facility, the brain remembers the details. The inspector is engaging kinetic memory by using the computer mouse. Since the inspector is directing the tour, he or she can spend as long as needed at each part of the facility. The virtual tours have an additional benefit: They're cheap to conduct. Moreover, the virtual tour uses a way of learning familiar to an increasing number of next-generation workers. Michel said 98 percent of people younger than age 25 have played or will play video games. "So, why would you bring someone into the industry who is used to working with a calculator and suddenly hand them a slide rule?" The team has developed a variety of other virtual 3-D programs to use for training. Each starts with an idea, and sometimes a few stick figures, from a scientist who is speaking lingo the graphic artists don't understand. "It's not easy to have a two-way conversation," Watkins said. The graphic artists research and draw out what they think the scientist wants. Once that's agreeable, Dickens helps develop the software by linking the scientifically-grounded data to work with the graphics. The virtual inspections still have to hone in on certain aspects. Some nuclear-facility tours can take three days. "Sitting through a three-day virtual inspection would be ridiculous, so we have to focus on certain activities," Watkins said. "It is enough bending of reality that you are able to complete a lot more in a short amount of time." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has contracted with the group to develop modern training modules for engineers. The team is working on Android and iPhone-sized versions of its training program. And the researchers plan to work with educational specialists to hone in on how people learn, aiming to make the virtual tours as effective as possible. Michel won't say on the record which video game she enjoys playing, but it does have something to do with zombies, an element the team won't be adding to the virtual nuclear-facility tours anytime soon. Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or [email protected]. To see more of The Santa Fe New Mexican, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.santafenewmexican.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, The Santa Fe New Mexican Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |