Pattern Recognition Method for Detecting Engineering Errors on Technical Drawings

Abstract

Many organizations are looking for how to automate repetitive tasks to reduce manual work and free up resources for innovation. Machine Learning, especially Deep Learning, increases the chance of achieving this goal while working with technical documentation. Highly costly engineering hours can be saved, for example, by empowering the manual check with AI, which helps to reduce the total time for technical documents review. This paper proposes a way to substantially reduce the hours spent by process engineers reviewing P&IDs (Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams). The developed solution is based on a deep learning model for analyzing complex real-life engineering diagrams to find design errors - patterns that are combinations of high-level objects. Through the research on an extensive collection of P&ID files provided by McDermott, we prove that our model recognizes patterns representing engineering mistakes with high accuracy. We also describe our experience dealing with class-imbalance problems, labelling, and model architecture selection. The developed model is domain agnostic and can be re-trained on various schematic diagrams within engineering fields and, as well, could be used as an idea for other researchers to see whether similar solutions could be built for different industries.