Remote Wireless Presence in Field Device Management

摘要

In smart field device management and condition monitoring there are two crucial challenges: information compression to knowledge and easy access to this valuable knowledge. Today smart field devices can collect huge amount of information about device performance and operation. This information flow increases the complexity and workload of operators and maintenance people. Therefore, the challenge is to create a system which automatically processes this information flow to on-line knowledge. Further, there is a need for a solution by which it is possible to create a remote on-line access to this valuable knowledge. First, the paper describes a knowledge agent by which it is possible to process or compress the information flow of smart field devices to on-line knowledge. This agent system automatically follows up on the condition of field devices. It also has learning capabilities through internet/intranet communication networks and it analyses and predicts the device control performance and future maintenance needs. The solution is based on software agent technology. The operation of this software agent is invisible to the users. Next the paper presents a solution for getting reliable and easy access to this valuable knowledge. To decrease the complexity and uncertainty in decision making there has to be the ability to create wireless online access to the knowledge. This is possible by utilizing the latest cellular communication technology. A mobile phone or other mobile terminal sets up a data connection to a gateway between the cellular communication system and the internet. The gateway provides an interactive connection for the mobile terminal to a web server containing the knowledge collected by the agent. Depending on the capabilities of the mobile terminal even high detail graphics can be displayed to the user. Finally, the benefits of this new solution are discussed.