Gerson Gomes Cunha

Virtual Control Desks for Nuclear Power Plant Simulation: Improving Operator Training

Current nuclear power plant simulators employ interfaces that use multiple computer displays to represent a simplified control desk. To make the simulation more realistic and effective, a proposed approach replaces the displays with a virtual control desk that precisely mimics the original.

A tecnologia de realidade virtual como recurso para formação em saúde pública à distância: uma aplicação para a aprendizagem dos procedimentos antropométricos

This article presents the research developed in the Laboratory of Computational Methods in Engineering of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in partnership with the Program of Distance Education of the National School of Public Health Sergio Arouca (ENSP), approaching the integration between Distance Education and Virtual Reality (VR) technology as reply to the public health educative demands that require the development of motor abilities. The application field was the formation of the professionals of the Food and Nutritional Surveillance, as is the base of one of the Brazilian public policies targeting the monitoring of lacks of nutrients. The prototype consists of a complementary virtual environment, supported in VR for the Monitoring of Food and Nutritional specialization course, that is part of the regulate courses of the Distance Education of ENSP approaching the anthropometric procedures for being the most used in the survey of the nutritional state of the population. A total of 189 participants visited the Virtual Environment and it could be evidenced that the VR can be used as a pedagogical resource to collaborate with the processes of professional distance education, that demand the development of motor abilities.

Use of VRML in collaborative simulations for the petroleum industry

This paper shows the application of the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) in petroleum industry simulations. The research already accomplished by GRVa/LAMCE (Applied Virtual Reality Group of the Computational Methods Laboratory in Engineering) is shown, ratifying the utilization as an important tool in several areas where Web utilization is available. Also VR concepts, advantages and applicability, besides a set of solutions/applications already developed specifically for the petroleum industry in a collaborative environment are shown.

Discussing Validation of 3D Character Animation Demonstrating Ushiro-Ukemi Pedagogical Progression

This study was designed to verify the evidence of validity, through: 1) literature review about ushiro-ukemi pedagogical progression. 2) An expert performed the movement and it was recorded to develop the animation. 3) Finally, an evaluation of 3D character animations processes by other experts’ opinions. 13 experts have evaluated three affirmatives through the Likert scale, and answered one question, also in ordinal scale, about the quality of the animation. The calculated medians for the first, second and third affirmatives were 5, 5 and 5 (fully agree), but, only for the 3 rd affirmative about sitting ushiro-ukemi, the median was 4 (agree). The percentage of answers that scored higher than agree varied from 84,6 to 100%. The median of the 3D character animation was very good (4) and the percentage of acceptance was 100% (≥ good). The found definitional evidence of validity for these animations ensured their application in a learning material.

Virtual Control Desks for Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear power is a very important option that meets the global needs for power generation. But nuclear plants’ operation involves high safety requirements, due to all the potential risks involved. Nuclear power plants (NPP) must be operated under safety conditions in all stages, since its start up, and during all the process. For this reason, control desks and rooms must be designed in such a way operators can take all the procedures safely, with a good overview of all variable indicators and easy access to actuator controls. Also, operators must see alarms indication in a way they can easily identify any abnormal conditions and bring the NPP back to normal operation. These matters have been taken into account through the years in NPP control desks and rooms design, through ergonomics or human factors evaluations, to help design safer NPP control systems (Hollnagel, 1985; Pikaar, 1990; ANSI ANS-3.5, 1993; Foley et al., 1998; Feher, 1999). Operator training routines used to be carried out in full-scope simulators that resembled real control desks with high fidelity. Then, a new concept emerged, using control systems simulators based on synoptic windows interface, with NPP dynamics computer-based simulation system. These later usually include all the dynamics involved in a NPP operation. All variables are affected by operators’ actions in the synoptic windows-based interface, with responses to their actions readily presented on screen. Although the high fidelity in the NPP dynamics simulations, synoptic windows-based interfaces does not resemble much real NPP control desks, since operators have to deal with graphical diagrams on computer screens. Virtual reality technology help NPP operation simulation, since it enables virtual control desks (VCD) prototyping, thus adding to NPP dynamics computer simulation the design of control desks with high visual fidelity with real ones. Operators can now take advantage of both the online simulation capabilities of NPP dynamics computer-based simulation systems, with a more suitable interface such as VCDs, which resemble more closely the real

ATDV: an image transforming system

Some macular pathology produces degeneration, which causes a perception loss in specific areas of the visual field. In this case, people visualize “blind spots” that hide part of the images captured by the impaired eye. The goal of this paper is to present an image distortion system that explores the Virtual Reality technology potential. To implement it we developed a system that is able to obtain the data generated by the visual field exam, and decode it. A camera captured the real images and the Convex Hull algorithm and Isoperimetric Mapping were used to identify the spots limits generating a divergent distortion in the images situated inside of the blind spot. The modified images can be visualized in a Virtual Reality head mounted display with eye tracking. This system offers opportunities to people with this visual problem to get a general perception of the covered area, reducing the visual loss.

Analyzing the human body joints range of movement: The use of bendsensors

This study aimed to describe the use of bendsensors to analyze the human body joints range of movement (ROM). To achieve this goal, we used a system integrating an electronic platform and bendsensors, which is able to capture frontal and sagittal planes movements. A program written in the Processing 1.2.1 language was developed to allow information conversion obtained by the electrical bendsensor resistance variation in degrees, which are shown in a computer screen. After installing the program, we defined the size and position of each bendsensor to capture the hand, knee and ankle ROM. The results indicated that the proposed sensor could be useful to analyze hand ROM, but it is limited by its format to analyze knee and ankle ROM in the frontal and sagittal planes. Other limitations of the system bendsensor/electronic platform are: the need of a wire connection from the bendsensor to the electronic platform and from the platform to a computer; the small number of the developed electronic platform analogical inputs; the impossibility to evaluate movements in the transverse plane (i. e. rotation); the difficulty to evaluate complex movements, which involve more than one plane. Another limitation is the necessity to validate these sensors to improve the confidence of the ROM evaluation by them.

Development of a Low Cost Motion Capture System to Analyze Wrist-Hand Complex

The aim of this article is to describe the development of a low cost motion capture system to analyze the movement of the wrist-hand complex (WHC). First, we searched the relevant literature about resources that could be used to develop a system for capturing motion. Through this search, we opted for the use of a system integrating an electronic platform and sensors (flexsensor and stretchsensor) that are able to capture the movements of WHC. A program written in the Processing 1.2.1 language was developed to allow the interpretation of the information obtained by the sensors and the electronic platform by the computer. Then, we defined the type, size and position of each sensor to capture the movement of each single joint of the WHC and the forearm movements of prone/supine. The prototype system proved to be a viable tool to test movements of the WHC. The results indicated that the proposed system could be useful to analyze movements of the WHC. On the other hand, the necessity of a wire connection from the sensors to the electronic platform and from the platform to a computer, the small numbers of analogical input of the developed electronic platform, the mechanical fragility of the sensors, and difficulty to evaluate the complex movement of opposition of the fingers can be limitations to this system. Another limitation of the system is its calibration. To overcome this problem, we intent to use measures of angles instead of the electrical resistance of the sensors.

Object recognition and tracking using Bayesian networks for augmented reality systems

One of the major problems in augmented reality (AR) is tracking and registration of both cameras and objects. These tasks must be done accurately to combine real and rendered scenes. In particular, the initialization of the object tracking often remains manual in most systems. This paper proposes the use of Bayesian networks to perform the object recognition and initialization of the tracking. By recognizing the object, special points are taken and we use this information to create generic markers around the scene. Then, an algorithm for pose estimation based on the AR-toolkit library is used to find the orientation of the real object to allow the registration process for 3D objects.

Operational approach for oil spill monitoring

This paper presents the methodological approach of the oil spill monitoring system that is being put into operation by the National Petroleum Agency (NPA) in Brazil. The methodology is based on integrated analysis of multi-sensor data which includes satellites products, such as, GOES and AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature (SST), SeaWiFs chlorophyll concentration, QuikScat near sea surface wind field, GOES and AVHRR convective rain areas, and Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) data from RADARSAT-1 satellite. The methodology is implemented by means of a system composed by four subsystems called, data reception (SAR, GOES, NOAA and QuikScat), Integrator, hydrodynamic model and database. The methodology was applied to the accidental oil spill caused by PETROBRAS oil rig P-36. A RADARSAT-1 image was acquired during accident period at 21:07 (GMT) on 22nd of March 2001 and used. The results are presented and discussed.