The use of augmented reality (AR) is increasingly being discussed for nuclear facilities, for example for operation and decommissioning. A central technical challenge is the precise geometric overlay of virtual models with reality.

Pascal Mosler, M.Sc., research assistant at the Institute of Numerical Methods and Informatics in Civil Engineering (iib), developed a method for tracking and the exact positioning of virtual contents using an extended reality headset. He tested the system under challenging conditions at the Mont Terri underground rock laboratory in Switzerland, an important research site for investigating the feasibility of a future deep geological repository for radioactive waste.

In their conference paper “Augmented Reality in Nuclear Facilities: Insights from Experiments in the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory, Switzerland”, Pascal Mosler and his co-authors present the developed method, compare it with other approaches for mobile hardware such as smartphones, and discuss its transferability to nuclear facilities, such as nuclear power plants and repositories. The results also build on findings from the theses of Ole Christian Woock, M.Sc., and Theo Kastner-Guhl, M.Sc. Further co-authors are Dr. Martin Ziegler (Swisstopo / Mont Terri) and Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uwe Rüppel (iib).

The paper was presented at the 32nd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE32) in Weihai, China. There, Pascal Mosler was honored with a Qian Sanqiang Best Paper Award by the Chinese Nuclear Society (CNS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME).

The iib congratulates Pascal Mosler on this special recognition!