A concept of mirror world for radioactive working environment by interactive fusion of radiation measurement in real space and radiation visualization in virtual space

Abstract

To understand radiation information, such as dose rate and the position of radioactive substances in a radioactive working environment in detail, the author proposes the construction of a mirror world of the environment. In the proposed mirror world, the work environment is reproduced in a virtual space, and the radiation information measured in a real space is projected onto the virtual space. Note that in addition to displaying the radiation information in the virtual space, the visualization result of the radiation information in the virtual space is used for decision-making in the real space. In this paper, the author introduces an example of building the mirror world based on radiation measurements performed in a laboratory using 137Cs as a radiation source. In the laboratory, the dose rate was measured using a survey meter together with a device for the simultaneous localization and mapping based on three-dimensional (3D) light detection and ranging. The measured dose rate was mapped onto the work environment in the virtual space. Technologies developed by the author, for example, the 3D visualization of the radiation source based on an integration of the Compton camera and structure-from-motion technology and the virtual-reality experience technology of the work environment that displays the source image were also used. The technology to project the radiation-source image into the real space using augmented-reality was also introduced. It is seen that radiation measurement in the real space and visualization of measurement results in the virtual space always affect the decision-making of work in each other’s space.