Virtual Human in the Loop (VHITL): Generating Synthetic Human Performance Data with HUNTER

The Human Unimodel for Nuclear Technology to Enhance Reliability (HUNTER) software is used for dynamic human reliability analysis (HRA). HUNTER creates a digital human twin (or virtual operator) that interfaces with a digital twin (or nuclear power plant simulator). HUNTER is procedure driven, a unique characteristic of safety domains in which much decision making is rule based and captured in procedures. The outputs of HUNTER extend beyond the typical outputs of an HRA estimating method and approach the level of human performance data acquired from human-in-the-loop (HITL) studies using operators and a plant simulator. An advantage of HUNTER is that it creates a virtual human in the loop (VHITL). As such, HUNTER is a unique source of synthetic data on human performance. This paper highlights the use of HUNTER for use in automated evaluations for human factors. HUNTER augments HITL studies by providing a virtual tool to screen human interactions with novel technologies in the control room.