Virtual Reality in Plant Design and Operations · (CES Consumer Technology Association www....

352 … NICE, 제34권 제4호, 2016

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Is 2016 the year of VR?

If the buzz and excitement around Virtual Reality (VR) at the recent CES 2016 event in Las Vegas (CES Consumer Technology Association www.ces.tech/) is anything to go by then 2016 is going to be an important year for VR. The commercial availability of new VR head mounted displays (HMD) such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive will not only drive a significant increase in the adoption and acceptance of Virtual Reality as a mainstream digital user interface but also fuel the development of new diverse applications of VR technology. Whilst the primary market of these technologies is entertainment and gaming, industrial VR applications will also benefit from the power of these user interfaces with he added bonus that the price point is aimed at the consumer market.

New VR technology in the Process

Industries

The application of VR in Chemical Engineer-ing and the Process Industries is not new and has been around since the 90s however it has tended to be used in niche applications, only by a selected number of companies and has not yet become wide spread and adopted as common best practise. This could be due to some of the main challenges to a wider adoption being the cost and space required to create CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environ-ment) systems, ergonomics and effective model interaction and motion sickness. What is exciting

Figure 1 – Oculus Rift (www.oculus.com)

Virtual Reality in Plant Design and Operations

Peter Richmond

Schneider Electric Software – EYESIM Product Manager

[email protected]

Figure 2 – EYESIM & HTC VIVE (www.htcvive.com)

NEWS & INFORMATION FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERS, Vol. 34, No. 4, 2016 … 353

is that the new generation of VR HMD promise to address these challenges and are driving a renewed interest from companies seeking to develop indus-trial applications that deliver the value that VR has always hinted is possible.

PC Power and new GPU

In addition to recent significant investment in VR devices there is parallel heavy investment in the computing power and graphic processing abili-ties needed to meet the demands of these high defi-nition real-time devices with new advanced Graph-ic Processing Units (GPU) being released alongside the new VR headsets. These advanced computers, again aimed at a consumer price point, are vital to be able render the real-time virtual environments

with sufficient frames per second to ensure a fluid user experience. Add on top of that accurate head and hand tracking and ultra-low latency image processing that have been developed as part of the new hardware and you have a VR experience that addresses lot of the challenges of previous genera-tions of technology. From my perspective, having tried most forms of VR available, the combination of latest GPU with latest VR HMD enable a truly stunning user immersive experience that is game changing not only for the entertainment sector but also for industrial VR applications as well.

VR in the Design Phase

In today’s digital era plant design and construc-tion are predominantly executed using 3D CAD modelling software often with sophisticated inte-gration to the vast quantities of engineering data created during the development phase of projects. These tools also extend into providing 3D visu-alisation, walkthroughs and user selectable object based contextual information based on design information or other desired data points. Typi-cally viewed via workstation monitors or projected screens some companies are looking to extract

Figure 3 – NVIDIA GTX 1080 GPU (www.nividia.com)

Figure 4 – Radeon GPU (www.amd.com)

Figure 5 – Ergonomic Design Review using EYESIM and real-time head and hand tracking

354 … NICE, 제34권 제4호, 2016

Virtual Reality in Plant Design and Operations하이라이트

more value from the significant investment in the engineering of the model and apply the power of Virtual Reality to those models. By translating the digitised information into a 1:1 scale spatially ac-curate interactive environment allows engineers to get a deeper understanding of the final plant before construction and to troubleshoot and find resolution well in advance of the commissioning activities. Typical activities can include, collaborative design reviews, clash and fault finding, customer progress reviews, operability reviews, safety equipment lo-cation review, and commissioning engineers walk-ing the plant for planning, preparation and fault finding.

The key to enable the extra value is to be able to find an efficient way to run the 3D CAD models in a VR ready engine that can render in real-time and has all tools required to interface to the output devices such as the new HMD or CAVE systems including the tracking systems with tools for user friendly interaction. Based upon my experiences from the recent advances in both VR hardware and software applications available I would expect more and more engineering companies to extend their design and review process into the Virtual Environment. What is more the technology has the potential to allow multiple teams to collaborate in multiple locations on the same model at the same time. This is particularly valuable as today a large number of projects are executed using engineering teams in disparate locations around the globe.

VR for Operational Excellence

What about plant handover, commissioning and eventual operations of the process plant? Can Virtual Reality be applied to add value? Even in

a business environment where the low oil price is putting pressure on new developments and de-laying certain capital investments there are still a significant number of projects being executed. The energy industry continues to face the challenge of ensuring the skill and knowledge of their work-force is ready for safe and efficient operations. The baby boomer generation continues to retire taking with it a vast number of years’ experience of how to deal with abnormal conditions and at the same time a large number of younger inexperienced op-erators are being recruited to meet the demands of the expanding workforce. Whilst the application of simulation based training for control room opera-tions, commonly referred to as Operator Training Simulators (OTS), is widely accepted as best prac-tice for efficient transfer of knowledge and skills development companies are increasingly looking to 3D Virtual Reality technology to supplement their training activities to include field and maintenance operator training.

How many hours have you “clocked” in

the simulator?

The application of Virtual Reality has been com-mon place for many years in military and aeronau-tics sectors as battle field simulation or flight simu-

Figure 6 – EYESIM Immersive Training System (ITS)


lators are established forms of training, with sol-diers and pilots spending many hours per year in simulators to supplement their real world training activities. As with the design area a potential barri-er in the past to the wide adoption of VR for the process industries could be attributed to the cost to create a CAVE system or engineer a VR software application for training. As the VR hardware tech-nologies advance and the supporting software ap-plications develop the price to implement a VR Im-mersive Training System (ITS) has significantly re-duced over the last few years and therefore more and more companies able to turn to 3D visualisa-tion to support their training programmes.

Safety training in a safe environment

The significant advantage that simulation based training can provide is that key training and knowl-edge can be delivered in a consistent repeatable manner in the safe environment of the training facility. Plants are by their nature dangerous envi-ronments, what is more they are generally in stable operation and so operators cannot practice any real plant interaction. Developing a range of courses that cover every aspect of standard operating pro-cedures for both normal and abnormal plant condi-

tions allows training and assessment of operators in the safe and controlled environment of the class-room. The required skillset for safe and efficient plant operations can be consistently transferred and competency levels documented. The modern pro-cessing plant is engineered to run for long periods between shutdowns and sophisticated control and safety systems enable stable performance. This leads to the opportunities for operators to experi-ence real world situations being infrequent. And yet things still do go wrong and the responses the operators make can only be based on the experi-ence levels and they knowledge of the team around them. What is more, emergency situations are thankfully rare but the time to learn how to respond is not during the incident. Virtual Reality offers a new way for emergency preparedness training to be delivered to every operator that works in the plant. By creating a range of emergency scenarios in the virtual environment using high fidelity real-time animations and visualisation we can provide a basis of understanding that will increase the likeli-hood that an operator will take the right action in the event of an incident. Applying a comprehensive simulation based training curriculum that includes

Figure 7 – VR as part of the regular curriculum of training department

Figure 8 – Emergency Preparedness Training in VR Environment

356 … NICE, 제34권 제4호, 2016


both panel and field operations working together as a team, as in real life, allows the full range of skills and base knowledge to be transferred in an efficient and consistent manner.

Where can VR add value?

As you would expect industries that have com-plex operations or potentially dangerous operating situations such as those found in the hydrocarbon and chemical processing industries are those that can significantly benefit from simulation based training. In addition operations in challenging en-vironments such as the upstream industry where there are added challenges that increase the risk factors companies must mitigate, such as working in harsh environments and dealing with remote locations. This challenge will only increase as up-stream developments push into more and more dif-ficult locations to exploit the oil and gas reserves.

Use early in the lifecycle to maximise

the return

Realistic virtual training environments allow operators to become familiar with plants and their operation well before they even step on the plant. Investment in Immersive Training Systems ap-plied early in the lifecycle maximises the return on investment (ROI). For upstream facilities such

as offshore platforms or FPSO (Float Production Storage and Offloading) this becomes even more valuable to be able to provide training and pre-commissioning to engineers and operators prior to being helicoptered to the real asset. The design of these assets is often dense and complex based on meeting the space and weight restrictions leading to challenges for operators to locate and navigate to the correct equipment they need to action as part of a particular operating scenario.

VR can reduce the time to competency

The objective of simulation based training is to reduce the “time to competency” and to ensure a high level of skill, plant knowledge and situational awareness is transferred to each member of the team as efficiently as possible. Immersive Training Systems (ITS) using VR technology provides an additional string to the bow of the training department’s armoury to ensure all aspects of plant operation are covered. Customers working with Schneider Electric are applying 3D real-time technology and ITS in a wide range of applications and for a wide range of industries. The technology is incredibly scalable and can be applied to provide training value for anything from a single piece of equipment using interactive 3D techniques to an entire virtual plant with virtual control room and

Figure 9 – Combined Control Room and Field Operator Training System for an Oil and Gas Gathering Centre


high fidelity dynamic process simulation. What is more the same 3D model created can be deployed in several ways depending on the overall training department requirements. For example a complete ITS system deployed with a Control Room HMI and CAVE for the field operations could also be deployed as a classroom style application. Elements of the same model can also then be deployed on tablet or accessed from a private (or public depending on customer requirements) cloud server.

Early adopter for Immersive Training

One early adopter of VR technology is the US Department of Energy (DOE) who worked with Schneider Electric to install a state of the art training facility at the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL) Advanced Virtual Energy Simulation Training and Research (AVESTAR) Centre in West Virginia. The system includes combines a high fidelity dynamic simulation and control room emulation with a 3D Virtual Reality environment of an entire Integrated and Gasification and Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant with carbon capture.

A wide range of training courses are available that cover all aspects of plant operations allow-ing users to immerse themselves in an interactive stereoscopic photorealistic 3D virtual plant that is connected to dynamic simulation such that ac-tions taken in the plant have real impact on plant performance and provide a realistic response from the users perspective. In addition enhanced reality features such as showing vessel internals, liquid levels, and dynamic fluid animation allow a deeper understanding of the design operation of the plant.

The system is designed to allow instructors to set plant malfunctions including fluid leaks and fires in different areas of the plant test trainee’s ability to respond with the correct actions and see how they communicate as a team to address the situation.

Conclusions

Since that pioneering project the technology has been deployed to wide range of process industries, including Upstream Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Refining, Power and Nuclear in all corners of the world. With the recent huge investment and developments in VR technology coupled with the mature nature of the Immersive Training System software available the future of Virtual Reality for the process industries is very bright.

What’s next?

So what’s next? Well if 2016 is the year for Vir-tual Reality then perhaps 2017 will be the year for the close relation to VR, Augmented Reality (AR). AR is the combination of 3D information overlaid onto live images of the real world, or overlaid on the real world itself with the latest wearable de-vices entering into the market. Again whilst this technology is not new and has been around for

Figure 10 – Immersive Training System for IGCC plant at NETL

358 … NICE, 제34권 제4호, 2016


several years’ significant investment is being made in the hardware and software required to make ef-fective AR solutions. Notably the release of the much awaited Microsoft HoloLens developer ad-dition, a wearable device that projects holographic 3D images overlaid on the real world view of the user and other similar solutions entering the market will drive the development of augmented reality

solution for industrial processes. These new solu-tions will allow real-time training and operations support put at the fingertips of the operator. One application developed by Schneider Electric for the Field Service engineers and partner companies in the Energy sector allows operators to carry the maintenance and operating procedures with them in a tablet based AR application. Using the camera of the tablet the operator sees live the step by step instructions for the key maintenance operations allowing him to carry out his actions safely and efficiently. Currently AR for the field is deployed on ruggedized tablets but it will not be long before suitable intrinsically safe wearable devices with the power and infrastructure needed are available for industrial Augmented Reality applications.

Figure 11 – Conceptual Image for AR in the field

Virtual Reality in Plant Design and Operations · (CES Consumer Technology Association www....

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