Using Virtual Reality to Support Multi-Participant Human-Centered Design Processes for Control Room Design Michael N. Louka, Morten A. Gustavsen, and Svein Tore Edvardsen OECD Halden Reactor Project, Institute for Energy Technology, PO Box 173, NO-1751 Halden, Norway. michael.louka@hrp.no Abstract – We present an overview of a method of applying interactive 3D visualization techniques to support control room design activities, and summarize studies that supports it. In particular, we describe the software tools that we have developed and how these support a human-centered design (HCD) workflow. We present some lessons learnt from using our tools in control room design projects, and outline our plans for extending the scope of our approach to support concurrent design and later phases of a plant's lifecycle. I. INTRODUCTION The human-centered design process recommended in international standards and guidelines, such as ISO-11064 [1] and NUREG-0711 [2], is iterative and involves the participation of multiple stakeholders from a range of disciplines. End-users, human factors (HF) specialists, hardware vendors, architects, and others, collaborate to develop a control center design that accommodates the needs of the operators that will interact with the new or revised control systems. Identifying and correcting potential HF guideline violations early in the process is desirable to achieve an satisfactory result in a cost-effective manner, however providing rapid, reliable, HF feedback early in the design process is challenging. Analyzing drawings and constructing mock-ups is time-consuming and expensive, giving limited scope for exploring new ideas, and limiting the understanding and involvement of all parties. We have applied interactive 3D visualization to control room design activities in order to address a number of issues experienced when trying to apply HCD methods to real projects. Over the last ten years, we have increased the scope of our approach through research and experience, and have developed a suite of software tools designed specifically to support it. II. MOTIVATION AND GOALS Virtual reality (VR) technology enables users to immerse themselves in a computer-generated artificial environment with the ability to navigate through the environment and interact with objects in it [3]. For control room design, this means that users can navigate through a virtual room, interactively modify its layout, and view it from any angle or location. While VR is commonly associated with advanced stereoscopic display systems and motion tracking, interactive 3D techniques can also be applied on the desktop, with the user’s computer display functioning as a window into a virtual world [4]. Our primary motivation for introducing interactive 3D technology into the control room design process was to address the issue of how to actively involve multiple stakeholders in a design project at an early stage [5]. It was hoped that an interactive 3D model of a control room could serve as an effective common focal point for multi- disciplinary design teams and lower barriers to extracting early input from operators and HF staff. As a virtual layout can be modified interactively, the consequence of changes can be seen and discussed immediately. This level of immediacy could enable HF specialists to provide regular guidance as virtual prototypes takes form, before prototypes are committed for review. While the ability to quickly produce, modify, and discuss design concepts promotes creativity, it could also result in chaos and information overload. Therefore, an important goal has been to establish a methodic framework that supports the management and tracking of the design process. While some explorative ideas produced in the course of the early layout design work are rapidly discarded, an effective HCD process requires formal review against HF guidelines in order to provide structured feedback for the iterative refinement of a design. Producing physical mockups is costly and time-consuming and the number of formal reviews of complete mockup layouts that can be carried out using physical mockups is therefore constrained. By placing manikins inside virtual rooms and providing 3D tools for measuring distances, angles, and lines of sight, it was hypothesized [6] that a virtual control room could replace a physical mock-up as a means of evaluating control room layouts against HF guidelines, reducing costs, and saving considerable time.