White Paper: A Smart System Primer for Asset Owners - An Inside Look at Smart System Capabilities, Applications, Benefits, Implementation Challenges, and Solutions

Industries have plenty to gain by increasing their automation, use of robotics and artificial intelligence for in-field operations. In the energy sector alone, “automation has become an increasingly important tool for energy professionals, enabling them to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and gain a better understanding of their operations.” In agriculture, “AI, machine learning (ML) and the IoT sensors that provide real-time data for algorithms increase agricultural efficiencies, improve crop yields and reduce food production costs,” said Louis Columbus, Forbes Contributing Editor. These opportunities are evident in many more industries, but asset owners must identify those that both move the needle and quickly create and demonstrate value. At the heart of these opportunities are very complex technologies so it is not surprising that many asset owners feel perplexed when ‘more automation’ or ‘AI’ is on their roadmap for improved, safer, in-field inspection and maintenance operations. 

As asset owners look to employ more in-field automation, smart systems with new capabilities are required to enable the rapid adoption of such solutions across a wide array of operational needs. While traditional inspection and maintenance involves human interaction at all stages of the process including data collection, interpretation, and distribution, in-field smart system solutions typically require the automation of each of these processes to achieve desired results. By integrating AI and other edge processes, along with Internet of Things (IoT) interfacing, smart systems reduce the time and costs to create application-specific robotic inspection and maintenance products that deliver real-time information to both local and remote information consumers.

This white paper arms asset owners with concepts and processes that allow them to meet these challenges, gain clarity, and successfully implement in-field inspection and maintenance automation improvements.