June 6, 2024 ABB Limited (Zurich)
- The project, part of Imperial College London's Carbon Capture Pilot Plant, will add AI-powered video analytics to the suite of technologies used in the control room.
- This project explores how AI-powered video analytics can provide actionable insights to factory operators to improve safety, productivity and efficiency.
- The pilot plant provides future engineers and scientists with hands-on experience in the use of technology.
ABB, Imperial College London and innovative computer vision company Unleash live will use AI-powered video analytics in a new project aimed at helping industrial businesses improve safety, productivity and efficiency.
The project explores how AI-powered video analytics can enhance human potential and avoid human error in industrial plants. It is part of Imperial College London's Carbon Capture Pilot Plant, the only educational facility of its kind in the world. The plant uses the ABB Ability™ System 800xA® for distributed process control and more than 250 ABB instruments measuring temperature, pressure, carbon dioxide and flow to train the engineers and scientists of the future.
The carbon capture pilot plant's control system automatically controls and regulates every aspect of the plant process, which is visualized on a display for students to monitor and intervene if necessary. As part of the new project, the AI tracks video images received through an ABB Ability™ System 800xA plug-in that alerts the control system if an instrument is not positioned correctly before starting or stopping a process. It determines, for example, whether a selected valve is in the correct position (open or closed) before a pump is stopped. It can also detect abnormal events such as smoke or fire, or health, safety and environment-related events such as a lack of protective equipment for workers.
“We have many analytics technologies in our portfolio and are now very keen to explore the full potential of AI-powered video analytics,” said Jean-René Roy, global business line manager, ABB Measurement & Analytics. “A lot of operational insights can be derived from imagery and it's great to see innovation maturing in this field. We want to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange between industry leaders, startups and academic institutions to tackle key industrial challenges.”
“Large factories may have security cameras or other types of camera networks installed, such as CCTV,” said Hanno Blankenstein, CEO of Unleash live. “With AI-powered video analytics, we can send video feeds from the camera systems into the operator's workspace and provide actionable information in real time, something that would normally take hours of work. This capability is underutilized and we want to show what's possible.”
Unleash live is an innovative company combining computer vision technology with real-time data analytics with the goal of providing actionable insights to industries. In 2022, Unleash live won the ABB Measurement & Analytics Startup Challenge, whose objective was to identify digital imaging technology that would complement ABB's analytical equipment portfolio and help customers improve safety, productivity and efficiency.
In 2023, ABB and Imperial College London signed a 10-year agreement to extend the successful partnership between the two schools. Since opening in 2012, more than 4,500 students have had hands-on experience with ABB technology solutions at the factory. The collaboration will give the college access to some of the most advanced control and measurement technology available from any manufacturer. Imperial College London undergraduate students have been involved in developing and testing use cases for the new project.
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