Global insights
Location intelligence - knowing the 'who, what, when and where' - is finding its way into a widening range of business applications. Malcolm Brown takes a look at its rapid uptake by BP in support of the company's continuing drive toward smarter and safer operations
Consolidating information from many disparate databases and embedding it in the new management system gives the crisis team an up-to-the-minute snapshot of what is happening. It enables them to make very rapid decisions about such things as offshore installation evacuations, or alerts to humanitarian aid teams about personnel whose homes are in the path of the storm.
It is all a far cry from the days when crisis management teams worked with wall maps, pushpins and pieces of string that showed how far away each facility was from the eye of the hurricane. Even when that process was to some extent automated using mapping software it could take hours to manually pull all the necessary information from many different databases. Now it is on tap, available instantly.
Location intelligence is not a single software system or technology but a family of technologies and software applications whose common feature is that they do something clever with location data. Most computer applications or technologies are driven by algorithms that draw on databases which, when interrogated by the computer, can answer the questions 'who, what and when' and sometimes even 'how'. Location intelligence adds 'where' to the mix. It complements the other data with information about geographic location, or location in three-dimensional (3D) space. And it displays all this information in easy-to-understand screen visualisations.
Location intelligence is particularly relevant to BP because the company's operations are global and very physical.
The CTO became interested in location intelligence as a potential game changer when it saw the convergence of three things.
The first was the proliferation in the consumer market of very high powered low or zero cost geospatial tools, such as the proprietary Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth tools. The second element was the rapid growth in sources of location data - this includes everything from global positioning systems that tell the user exactly where they are, to radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which allow someone in a control room to locate and track very precisely, in three dimensions, anyone or anything moving in a facility (Frontiers, April 2006). The third influence was the ubiquity of real-time data availability. With wireless, cellular and other forms of communication, including satellites, data can be transmitted to and from almost anywhere on the planet instantly.
Making the mash
Because off-the-shelf location intelligence packages aren't available, BP is using its own in-house expertise in conjunction with that of technology and software suppliers to create leading edge applications. The company is particularly interested in three categories of location intelligence applications, namely: 'mashups'; 'real-time location', which uses a variety of different technologies for live tracking of people or assets; and finally 'mobility', which provides users with access to web-based applications at the point of need on a hand-held mobile device.The term 'mashup' originally referred to the practice in pop music of producing a new song by mixing two or more existing pieces. In computing it describes web applications that blend data from many existing sources to create new capabilities and provide new insights.
BP's hurricane management system is classed as a mashup. Two other very innovative mashups have been developed by the BP team renewing sections of the Prudhoe Bay oil transit pipelines (OTLs) in Alaska. The Alaska pipeline Compliance Access Portal (CAP) will enable government regulators to go to a map of Alaska, zoom in on BP's new pipelines and call up detailed information about different sections of the line, such as original drawings, inspection reports and so on.
'The CAP stitches together all the required regulatory documentation in a digital environment,' says Steve Gerlek, leading the OTL renewal project. 'It has an intuitive map interface so that you can just point and click on the segment of pipeline that you are interested in and get all the associated regulatory data. Rather than going to the site and being shown several filing cabinets full of hard copy files to search through, it's all there for you.'
The resulting system is a 3D visualisation of the pipeline and its surrounding environment built up from very precise terrain information and data from BP's own data banks about power lines, pipelines, rights-of-way, construction equipment and other relevant information. Viewers, including contractors' teams, can 'fly' through this mirror world.
'Just as aircraft pilots use flight simulators to get used to a new airport,' says Gerlek, 'our crews can use this to understand better their safety envelopes before they even step on the ground.'
In March 2008, the project's success was rewarded with a European Green IT Award.
Real-time movers
The second major category of location intelligence, real-time location, lets BP keep a constant eye on its vehicles on the move. In one of the first such projects BP plans to equip all of its North American road tankers with a system that enables truck location to be monitored in real time to maximise fleet efficiency. The system combines global positioning system technology with wireless communications and will, in the future, interface with on-vehicle computers to work seamlessly within the supply chain.Another real-time location project, targeted at enhancing safety, is in operation at BP's new preservation and maintenance facility at Houma, Louisiana, an 11,600-square-metre covered workspace situated on six hectares of land. The facility preserves and maintains over 30,000 pieces of offshore equipment and materials needed for BP's Gulf of Mexico deepwater operations, requiring numerous heavy mobile vehicles such as fork-lift trucks and cranes. All of these vehicles, and anyone who might be in their vicinity, are equipped with RFID tags that constantly send location signals back to a control centre.
'A computer watches the movement of everything,' says Carlill. 'The system applies a number of safety rules to those movements, and flags up unsafe or potentially unsafe situations. You can think of it as a fork-lift truck having a sort of virtual bubble around it and people having virtual bubbles around them, indicating a safe separation distance. If the bubbles intersect because the person is too close to the fork-lift truck an alarm will sound.'
At present the pipelines are over-flown by manned aircraft. A qualified pilot looks for evidence of oil spills or anything that might threaten the integrity of the pipeline. The pilots radio in their location and details of what they have seen to a central control office.
Federal law requires pipelines to be patrolled every two weeks. BP has already increased that to once a week and ideally would like to do it three or four times a week, but using manned aircraft at this frequency would be financially prohibitive. UAVs would be much cheaper to run and would be used to supplement, rather than replace, the manned aircraft.
'BP has initiated a collaborative effort to apply leading edge technology to increase the safety and security of North America's critical pipeline infrastructure,' says Jim Lamanna, business unit leader for BP's North America Pipelines. 'Because a joint approach is key to success, we have brought together others in the pipeline industry along with US government agencies including the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Transportation Safety Administration, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.'
The crucial question that the project is exploring is whether small on-board surveillance devices could make the observations that pilots normally make. Could a UAV use 'machine vision' to spot incidents or other threats? If so, it could automatically transmit detailed alerts back to headquarters, along with the precise location of the problem.
On the job
The third category of location intelligence is about collecting, analysing and sharing location and related information between office and field-based job roles. The first such 'mobile location intelligence' project is planned to go live late in 2008 and will be an enhancement of BP's Integrated Safe System of Work (ISSOW) computer application. ISSOW supports a company-wide standard designed to ensure the safe execution of work conducted in the field - primarily on production platforms, refineries and other process plants - through appropriate risk assessments, isolation certificates and 'permits to work'.At present, the status and location of maintenance and engineering activities are displayed graphically on screens in a facility's control room - workers on the plant rely on paper printouts of key information, such as permits. Location intelligence technologies will extend the system's usefulness and value. Ken Douglas, another of the CTO's technology directors, explains.
'Extensive field trials of the first version of this "mobile ISSOW" solution are under way at several BP sites and the early feedback is very encouraging. Looking further ahead we will be able to use information about a worker's location to automatically reinforce additional safe working rules - for example, flagging a potential issue if a single person carries out work that needs at least two people to be present.'
Where will location intelligence go from here? For the moment most of the developments are taking place in the USA, but that will change, concludes Carlill.
'It is likely that within five years location technology will be woven into the fabric of BP's operations throughout the world, bringing significant benefits, reinforcing safety, and leading to radical improvements in efficiency throughout the value chain.'
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