• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.703-716
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• 2007

As digital and computer technologies have grown, human-machine interfaces (HMIs) have evolved. In safety-critical systems, especially in nuclear power plants (NPPs), HMIs are important for reducing operational costs, the number of necessary operators, and the probability of accident occurrence. Efforts have been made to improve main control room (MCR) interface design and to develop automated or decision support systems to ensure convenient operation and maintenance. In this paper, an integrated decision support system to aid operator cognitive processes is proposed for advanced MCRs of future NPPs. This work suggests the design concept of a decision support system which accounts for an operator's cognitive processes. The proposed system supports not only a particular task, but also the entire operation process based on a human cognitive process model. In this paper, the operator's operation processes are analyzed according to a human cognitive process model and appropriate support systems that support each cognitive process activity are suggested.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.429-439
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• 2008

With a remote operated manipulator system, the situation at a remote site can be rendered through remote visualized image to the operator. Then the operator can quickly realize situations and control the slave manipulator by operating a master input device based on the information of the virtual image. In this study, the remote operator visual support system (ROVSS) was developed for viewing support of a remote operator to perform the remote task effectively. A visual support model based on virtual environment was also inserted and used to fulfill the need of this study. The framework for the system was created by Windows API based on PC and the library of 3D graphic simulation tool such as ENVISION. To realize this system, an operation test environment for a limited operating site was constructed by using experimental robot operation. A 3D virtual environment was designed to provide accurate information about the rotation of robot manipulator, the location and distance of operation tool through the real time synchronization. In order to show the efficiency of the visual support, we conducted the experiments by four methods such as the direct view, the camera view, the virtual view and camera view plus virtual view. The experimental results show that the method of camera view plus virtual view has about 30% more efficiency than the method of camera view.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2453-2466
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• 2022

Nuclear power plant operators in the main control room are exposed to stressful conditions in emergency situations as immediate and appropriate mitigations are required. While emergency operating procedures (EOPs) provide operators with the appropriate tasks and diagnostic guidelines, EOPs have static properties that make it difficult to reflect the dynamic changes of the plant. Due to this static nature, operator workloads increase because unrelated information must be screened out and numerous displays must be checked to obtain the plant status. Generally, excessive workloads should be reduced because they can lead to human errors that may adversely affect nuclear power plant safety. This paper presents a framework for an operator support system that can substitute the initial responses of the EOPs, or in other words the immediate actions and diagnostic procedures, in the early stages of an emergency. The system assists operators in emergency operations as follows: performing the monitoring tasks in parallel, identifying current risk and latent risk causality, diagnosing the accident, and displaying all information intuitively with a master logic diagram. The risk causalities are analyzed with a functional modeling methodology called multilevel flow modeling. This system is expected to reduce workloads and the time for performing initial emergency response procedures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.16-26
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• 2020

Improving operator performance in complex and time-critical situations is critical to maintain plant safety and operability. These situations require quick detection, diagnosis, and mitigation actions to recover from the root cause of failure. One of the key challenges for operators in nuclear power plants is information management and following the control procedures and instructions. Nowadays Digital Twin technology can be used for analyzing and fast detection of failures and transient situations with the recommender system to provide the operator or maintenance engineer with recommended action to be carried out. Systems engineering approach (SE) is used in developing a digital twin for the CEDM system to support operator actions when there is a misalignment in the control element assembly group. Systems engineering is introduced for identifying the requirements, operational concept, and associated verification and validation steps required in the development process. The system developed by using a machine learning algorithm with a text mining technique to extract the required actions from limiting conditions for operations (LCO) or procedures that represent certain tasks.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.562-569
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• 2018

Recently, human errors have very rarely occurred during power generation at nuclear power plants. For this reason, many countries are conducting research on smart support systems of nuclear power plants. Smart support systems can help with operator decisions in severe accident occurrences. In this study, a smart support system was developed by integrating accident prediction functions from previous research and enhancing their prediction capability. Through this system, operators can predict accident scenarios, accident locations, and accident information in advance. In addition, it is possible to decide on the integrity of instruments and predict the life of instruments. The data were obtained using Modular Accident Analysis Program code to simulate severe accident scenarios for the Optimized Power Reactor 1000. The prediction of the accident scenario, accident location, and accident information was conducted using artificial intelligence methods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1554-1560
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• 2019

Development of digital main control rooms (MCRs) has greatly changed operating environments by altering operator tasks, and thus the unique characteristics of digital MCRs should be considered in terms of human reliability analysis. Digital MCR tasks can be divided into primary tasks that directly supply control input to the plant equipment, and secondary tasks that include interface management conducted via soft controls (SCs). Operator performance regarding these secondary tasks must be evaluated since such tasks did not exist in previous analog systems. In this paper, we analyzed SC-related tasks based on simulation data, and classified the error modes of the SCs following analysis of all operational tasks. Then, we defined the factors to be considered in human reliability analysis methods regarding the SCs; such factors are mainly related to interface management and computerized operator support systems. As these support systems function to reduce the number of secondary tasks required for SC, we conducted an assessment to evaluate the efficiency of one such support system. The results of this study may facilitate the development of training programs as well as help to optimize interface design to better reflect the interface management task characteristics of digitalized MCRs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.307-308
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• 2006

This paper is about the development of automatic inspection system of welded nuts on Support hinge using machine vision for the improvement of working condition. Until now, projection welding process was performed by operator. Also, inspection of welded nuts is performed manually and recorded by the operator's naked eye. So these processes caused the produce of poorly-made articles. To improve this manual operation, inspection system using machine vision is introduced. Test algorithm, lighting system and program showed good results to the designed inspection system and led to the increment of productivity.

• Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Applications
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.265-286
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• 2023

In this paper, we introduce and study a generalized Cayley operator associated to H(·, ·)-monotone operator in semi-inner product spaces. Using the notion of graph convergence, we give the equivalence result between graph convergence and convergence of generalized Cayley operator for the H(·, ·)-monotone operator without using the convergence of the associated resolvent operator. To support our claim, we construct a numerical example. As an application, we consider a system of generalized Cayley inclusions involving H(·, ·)-monotone operators and give the existence and uniqueness of the solution for this system. Finally, we propose a perturbed iterative algorithm for finding the approximate solution and discuss the convergence of iterative sequences generated by the perturbed iterative algorithm.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.929-938
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• 2012

The Computerized Procedure System (CPS) is one of the primary operating support systems in the digital Main Control Room. The CPS displays procedure on the computer screen in the form of a flow chart, and displays plant operating information along with procedure instructions. It also supports operator decision making by providing a system decision. A procedure flow should be correct and reliable, as an error would lead to operator misjudgment and inadequate control. In this paper we present a modeling for the CPS that enables formal verification based on Petri nets. The proposed State Token Petri Nets (STPN) also support modeling of a procedure flow that has various interruptions by the operator, according to the plant condition. STPN modeling is compared with Coloured Petri net when they are applied to Emergency Operating Computerized Procedure. A converting program for Computerized Procedure (CP) to STPN has been also developed. The formal verification and validation methods of CP with STPN increase the safety of a nuclear power plant and provide digital quality assurance means that are needed when the role and function of the CPS is increasing.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1986.10a
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• pp.191-196
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• 1986

This paper describes the development of general purpose operator interface which uses a color graphics terminal with a touch-sensitive screen as the control console. Operators interact with a process through a collection of application-dependent displays generated interactively by users familiar with the physical process. The use of real-time operating system(iRMX-86) and multitasking results in a straightforward and reliable development which may easily be extended to support multiple devices of varying types in the control console.