Patent Application
20200277850
The present invention relates to a computer, server or web application that provides a unified software platform and user interface for the means of optimizing subsea oil and gas production and drilling operations. In more detail, the present invention relates to a unified platform that performs condition monitoring for both real time and historical time series data as well as integration and access to unstructured data that may be related to but difficult to corelate automatically without false positives such as but not limited to engineering documentation, maintenance activity, changes in operational conditions, schedules, risk assessments, spare lists, production forecasts and well performance reports.
The unified user interface utilizes data from any source or historian database. The system automatically identifies equipment and system anomalies and reports to expert users by exception so that the user may use other information to validate or invalidate the anomaly as new risk or failure. The unified user interface creates additional data through user interaction as well as automatically through processing of data through a digital asset model embodied within the system. The unified interface system generates anomaly linkage data objects (ALO) based upon identified anomalies identified by the condition monitoring algorithms and validated correlations by an expert user. This enables training of software algorithms that enable the system to classify future anomalies and suggest cause and action to users based on defined parameters and relevance within the historical anomaly linkage objects.
[DESCRIBE PRIOR ART AND ITS LIMITATIONS (AND IT MAY TAKE SEVERAL PARAGRAPHS)]. It is an object of the embodiments of the disclosed invention to solve this problem. Subsea production systems are uniquely designed to optimally produce or drill for oil and gas from reservoirs located under bodies of water up to depths of 10,000 meters. These systems have varying well depths and flow characteristics including high pressure and high temperature. The operational risks vary between assets making operational support and methods unique. The equipment used in subsea production and drilling systems generate time series data from sensors which are typically stored in data historians of some nature which is the source of input data for the disclosed invention.
Because every subsea asset is uniquely designed and or operates in varying conditions, the impact of equipment failure varies widely between assets in terms of operational risk. Because the amount of data generated by these systems is so vast it is difficult for users to sort through it fast enough to detect failures or problems. Custom digital asset models can be used to efficiently route and process the incoming data streams to produce useful insights and actionable information to users. The asset model is a collection of digital objects whereby each object includes parameters and methods that relate one or more tagged data time series data streams together to allow the detection of normal or anomalous behavior of that component. Each equipment object in the asset model contains information about the component such as but not limited to part number, serial number, description, and its position and dependencies within the overall system. The unified interface system provides the framework to efficiently develop and employ the asset models for the benefit of but not limited to integrity management, flow assurance, maintenance, facilities, activity planning and production optimization.
Subsea production and drilling system equipment may not be accessible to be inspected by humans while in service making remote monitoring for condition changes crucial. This disclosed invention is a software systems that interprets and routes data into a format that connects expert users with anomalous conditions in service so that the subsea assets can be more efficiently operated. The unified user interface system integrates all digital tools and information into one place to facilitate that need.
Both time series data and unstructured data such as but not limited to maintenance schedules, production forecasts, spare inventory lists and operator notes and reports are made available to the user in the disclosed invention. The unstructured data may be related but not easily corelated automatically. The uniqueness of the assets requires data linkages to be made between anomalies and operational activity to leverage computer or software algorithms to learn and add value in the future. The unified interface provides means for expert users to train the unified interface by generating Anomaly Linkage Objects (ALO). Anomaly Linkage Objects (ALO) is software object that is generated by the unified Interface when the asset model detects an anomaly in the data stream with the aide of the asset model. The system automatically populates the ALO with relevant information extracted from the asset model as well as the time frame of the occurrence. The ALO forms a structured data object which provides a means for users to integrate and link unstructured data of condition, activity and cause with anomalies found in time series data that are processed through the asset model. The structured ALO objects provides a means for the system to efficiently search, analyze and match similarities in characteristics of past ALO to avoid iteration through large datasets so that the system can alert users to but not limited to potential cause, action plan and operational risk.
Subsea operators find it difficult to leverage and integrate all data sources together to produce actionable information from it because the data resides in different systems and the data sets are extremely large. The unified interface overcomes that challenge by presenting all information to the user in one place and creates a manageable list of Anomaly Linkage Objects (ALO) which correlate equipment time series data in a format that can be leveraged by computers and software algorithms to retain and remind users of past experience while reducing false positives alerts over time.
There is a gap in the retention of experience and lessons learned gained by an organization as users move on or exit. Connecting the lessons and experience to the rest of the organization has proven to be an organizational challenge. New users tend to investigate and solve problems that appear to be new to them before inquiring if the problem has been seen or solved before. The unified interface circumvents that inefficiency by prompting the user to past experiences as it identifies anomalies by checking for similarities in the more manageable list of Anomaly Linkage Objects (ALO).
Each of the above methods utilize customized mathematical methods, data filtering and relational behaviors, differential peak detection and rules sets embodied into the asset model which conform to the set-up of the equipment and the facility. Those skilled in the art of subsea systems, operations as well as data analytics will be able design and create relevant models for their application based on the teaching of the disclosed invention.
This listing of some of the objects of the present invention is intended to be illustrative. Other objects, and the many advantages of the present invention, will be made clear to those skilled in the art in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment(s) of the invention and in any drawing(s) appended hereto. Those skilled in the art will recognize, however, that the embodiment(s) of the present invention described herein are only examples of specific embodiment(s) of the invention, set out for the purpose of describing the making and using of the invention, and that the embodiment(s) shown and/or described herein are not the exclusive way(s) to implement the teachings of the present invention.
These several objects, and the advantages of the present invention, are met by providing a means for subsea practitioners to optimize subsea production and drilling operations through software data tools and interfaces that provide a means for performing condition monitoring and automated anomaly detection coupled with the ability to integrate and link operational activity and risk into generated Anomaly Linkage Object that can be used to encode references to lessons in anomaly case files, enrich data sets and enable computer and software algorithms to suggest action, cause or impact to similar events in the future.
In a second aspect, the present invention provides a means for transfer knowledge and experience from more experienced users into the disclosed invention so that less experienced users can leverage it as they use the disclosed invention.
In a third aspect, the present invention provides a means for providing detailed insights and information to remote personnel to permit better decisions whereby reducing risk by minimizing field personnel.
In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a means for automatically generate new value adding data or insights derived from multiple data sources using a custom asset model and anomaly linkage objects.
Other objects, and the many advantages of the present invention, will be made clear to those skilled in the art in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment(s) of the invention and the drawing(s) appended hereto. Those skilled in the art will recognize, however, that the embodiment(s) of the present invention that are described herein are only examples of specific embodiment(s), set out for the purpose of describing the making and using of the present invention, and that the embodiment(s) shown and/or described herein are not the only embodiment(s) of an apparatus and/or method constructed and/or performed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. Further, although described herein as having particular application to certain operations, as noted above, those skilled in the art who have the benefit of this disclosure will recognize that the present invention may be utilized to advantage in many applications, the present invention being described with reference to the applications described herein for the purpose of exemplifying the invention, and not with the intention of limiting its scope.
The detailed description of some embodiments of the invention is made below with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:
The disclosed invention then iterates around from either block 600 or 500 to block 100 and starts the automated process comprising of all the blocks outlined in red over again. When the expert user interacts with the disclosed invention, they do so through the provided unified interface to perform the action blocks outlined in black within
Block 700 is where the disclosed invention presents new ALO to the user and provides linkages to past ALO and anomaly case files which include forms of unstructured free form data and information. The user can than use the data tools and access to other non-structured data and operational notes to validate the findings and linkages made by the invention in the ALO as well as update the fields and additional linkages and contextual information to the ALO.
Block 800 is where the disclosed invention presents the newly generated ALO to the user as a new unidentified ALO. The user can then use the data tools and access to other non-structured data and operational notes to validate and update the finding as a new risk or expected behavior. The user can then and link previous related ALO to the new ALO as well as update the fields and additional linkages and contextual information for the new ALO as shown in block 900, 1000 and 1100.
The red blocks combined with the user interaction in the black blocks formulates the basis for the learning and retention benefits of the disclosed invention. This method and system is novel and non-obvious to practitioners in the art of subsea production and drilling systems, and provides means for learning retention within a system for unique subsea production and drilling assets.
Referring now to the figures, a first embodiment of the of the present invention is indicated generally as a PC, Laptop or smart Device under the client tool section in
Turning to these components in more detail, the disclosed invention is a software tool and system that integrates subsea system generated time series data and unstructured data into actionable information by means of processing the time series data through an asset model which is comprised of objects that digitally represent equipment hardware that is linked together through references within the objects which match the makeup for the subsea system. Each digital hardware object is embodied with operational parameters and operating limits and include mathematical methods for detecting unusual behavior. The methods may include filtering bad information, filling in data points for compressed data, imposing relational rules between multiple tags which those experienced in the art of subsea hardware and systems can derive and create based on these instructions. The asset model embodies methods for performing iterative calculations that may include Fourier transformations, differential peak searching and curve fitting to historical events for quick book marking in large historical data sets through the aide of the ALO data linkages.
The disclosed invention provides means for auto generating Anomaly Linkage Objects (ALO) which describe the nature of the anomaly and provides means of linking unstructured data to the anomaly instance by users. The ALO object creates a means to link anomaly instances with operational activity, cause, description and risk in a structured format to allow quick comparisons and book marking of previous events in large datasets. The ALO parameters include but are not limited to equipment TAG_NAME, SYSTEM, DESCRIPTION, VALIDATED, DOWNTIME, FINACIAL RISK, ENVIRONMENTAL RISK, REPUTATIONAL RISK, CAUSE, CAUSE DESCRIPTION, RELATED AOI, CASE FILE REFERENCE.
The disclosed invention provides means to automate notification through email or text message in real time upon detection of anomaly to users to prevent the need for users to continuously interact with the disclosed invention.
Those skilled in the art who have the benefit of this disclosure will also recognize that changes can be made to the component parts of the present invention without changing the manner in which those component parts function and/or interact to achieve their intended result. All such changes, and others that will be clear to those skilled in the art from this description of the preferred embodiment(s) of the invention, are intended to fall within the scope of the following, non-limiting claims.
