Veolia are leading the next generation of remote handling technology by collaborating with TOIA to integrate Haptic Virtual Reality (VR) into Veolia's Dexter™ telemanipulator system. This breakthrough allows operators to experience high fidelity force interaction with virtual environments, bringing a new level of realism to operator training, task assessment, and remote operations in high-risk nuclear environments.
Showcased at the World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE) 2025 in Paris, we demonstrated how digital simulation can replicate real-world operations, improving safety, operational efficiency, and skill development across the nuclear industry. By combining precise digital interaction with force feedback, Haptic VR for Dexter™ bridges the gap between virtual and physical operation, empowering operators to train, plan, and execute complex tasks with confidence.
What Is Haptic VR?
In most consumer settings, virtual reality is associated with wearing a headset to create a visually immersive world. In industrial robotics, “Virtual Reality” or “Digital Twin” refers to any virtual environment where operators can visualise their machine’s interactions within a digital space. Haptic VR extends this capability by adding force-feedback, allowing users to feel resistance, weight, and contact through a physical device. Haptic VR delivers realism through touch as well as sight in a realistic control environment. This foundation enables the seamless integration of Haptic VR with Dexter™, making digital interaction feel indistinguishable from operating the physical system.
Haptic VR for Dexter™: Making the digital tangible
At the core of this advancement is a bespoke interface developed by Veolia’s nuclear engineering team to connect Dexter™ to TOIA’s Haptic VR Environment, powered by Unreal Engine. This allows operators to feel and interact with a digital simulation of Dexter™ as if they were operating the real system.
Feedback from demonstrations has been overwhelmingly positive. Hundreds of participants at WNE 2025 experienced the system, with many remarking that it felt so real they wondered where the “other half” of the system was. Such reactions confirm the immersive quality of this technology and its potential to transform operator training and operational planning.
Originally introduced during the UKAEA LongOps Programme, the system has evolved through continued collaboration between Veolia and TOIA. Today, it is fully integrated with Dexter™, enabling realistic, high-fidelity simulations of complex tasks.
Enhancing operations through realistic training and assessment
The integration of Haptic VR into Dexter™ serves two primary operational purposes:
- Operator training: Operators can repeatedly practice complex tasks in a safe, highly realistic virtual environment. By using just half of a Dexter™ system, and with virtual environments that closely mimic real-world scenarios, trainees can gain the experience necessary to handle difficult operations without exposure to radiation or other hazards. The ability to practice tasks endlessly in a virtual environment accelerates skill development while reducing reliance on the physical system, and builds core manipulation and situational awareness skills that are directly transferable to other remote handling tools such as MSM’s, robotic telemanipulators, and robotic arms.
- Task assessment: Haptic VR also supports the design, planning and validation of remote operations. Engineers can assess the feasibility of tasks, iterate designs quickly, and refine operational strategies without the time and cost associated with full-scale physical mockups. This includes valuable exposure to rare and edge cases which, in an industry where every day might pose a new challenge, is hugely beneficial. In remote operations, for example, a complicated tool change might happen only once a year, so the opportunity to rehearse is limited in the real world but can be repeated and refined in VR. This capability extends across the nuclear sector, assisting with remote handling feasibility studies, tool selection and decommissioning strategies, ultimately enhancing both safety and operational efficiency.
Wider industry impact: safer, smarter operations
The combination of Haptic VR and Dexter™ represents a step change for remote handling in the nuclear industry. By enabling operators to experience and assess operations digitally, Veolia is helping reduce the reliance on full-scale physical mockups, which are costly and resource-intensive.
Haptic VR complements physical operations, supporting concept design, operator training, and pre-job rehearsal. Tasks can be planned and practiced safely in a virtual environment, while final validation and real-world verification remain essential to ensure procedures, tools, and equipment perform as intended. Although it does not replace mockups entirely, Haptic VR can reduce their frequency, accelerating development cycles and lowering operational costs. More importantly, it directly supports one of Veolia’s primary objectives: removing humans from hazardous environments. This innovation is not only a technical achievement but also a step toward safer, more sustainable nuclear operations.
Engaging with the Technology
By combining force feedback, realistic virtual environments, and the precision of DexterTM, we offer operators a more intuitive experience in operator training, task assessment, and remote operation. For the nuclear industry and beyond, this innovation offers safer, more efficient, and more sustainable operational solutions.
The best way to appreciate the potential of Haptic VR for DexterTM is to experience it firsthand. You can explore the system with demonstration at our Nuclear Solutions headquarters in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
