Bringing experts, service companies together to examine IR4.0 solutions

Edge analytics, machine learning, and robotic and unmanned aerial vehicles were among the key topics at a recent technical exchange forum hosted virtually by the Shaybah Producing Department (SyPD).

The technical program of the "IR4.0 Technical Exchange Forum Toward Excellence" was designed as a one-stop shop showcasing the latest emerging technologies and their IR4.0 capabilities. During the program, 15 technical papers were virtually disseminated to the 150 participants.

The event concluded with a workshop to capture all the lessons learned and best practices to enhance overall safety and reliability through value creation imperatives in minimizing the environmental impact from pipelines to in-plant processing equipment.

Maher A. Arfaj, SyPD manager, said the event provided an excellent opportunity for knowledge sharing, networking, and volunteer opportunities -- all focused and aligned with Aramco's IR4.0 strategic initiatives.

Machine learning

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that is a discipline that uses mathematical models to solve business problems by examining data patterns.

The forum highlighted the three major subdisciplines of machine learning, including:

• Supervised learning, or "labeled data"
• Unsupervised learning (where labels are omitted)
• Reinforcement learning

Dr. Lanre Oshinowo, Nada I. Alruwaii, Syed A. Ahmed and Saad N. Quaimi, experts from the Research and Development Center (R&DC), Saudi Aramco Well Completion Operation  (SAWCOD), and Process and Control Services departments shared how their ML models and applications provided significant improvement in various fields. These included improvements in crude quality, mechanical operation i.e. milling and detection of potential corrosion under insulation.

Edge analytics

Edge analytics are those executed in distributed devices, servers, or gateways located away from corporate data centers or cloud servers -- often collected from things such as sensors.

Hatam Mehraz from SyPD shared details of "FluidCom," a new automatic flow metering valve that addresses the design challenges of conventional chemical injection systems through intelligent scattered devices to optimize and ensure adequate dosage.

Robotic and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Drones and other air, ground, and underwater platforms that can be configured to bring sensor payloads to remote locations were also discussed.

Mohammed A. Abufour and Rami A. Sulaim of Aramco's Inspection Department shared several proven technologies that are mature for industrial utilization, including an underwater robot to carry out the inspection of industrial scale water tanks and drones that are capable to facilitate visual inspection across industrial fields and plants.