Control Room Research Articles

Enhancing Control Room Operator Decision Making

In the dynamic and complex environment of industrial control rooms, operators are often inundated with numerous tasks and alerts, leading to a state known as task overload. This condition can result in decision fatigue and increased reliance on cognitive biases, which may compromise the decision-making process. To mitigate these risks, the implementation of decision support systems (DSSs) is essential. These systems are designed to aid operators in making swift, well-informed decisions, especially when their judgment may be faltering. Our research presents an artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework utilizing dynamic influence diagrams and reinforcement learning to develop a powerful decision support system. The foundation of this AI framework is the creation of a robust, interpretable, and effective DSS that aids control room operators during critical process disturbances. By incorporating expert knowledge, the dynamic influence diagram provides a comprehensive model that captures the uncertainties inherent in complex industrial processes. It excels in anomaly detection and recommending optimal actions. Furthermore, this model is improved through a strategic collaboration with reinforcement learning, which refines the recommendations to be more context-specific and accurate. The primary goal of this AI framework is to equip operators with a live, reliable DSS that significantly enhances their response during process upsets. This paper describes the development of the AI framework and its implementation in a simulated control room environment. Our results show that the DSS can improve operator performance and reduce cognitive workload. However, it also uncovers a trade-off with situation awareness, which may decrease as operators become overly dependent on the system’s guidance. Our study highlights the necessity of balancing the advantages of decision support with the need to maintain operator engagement and understanding during process operations.

Establishing and streamlining the communication and coordination through emergency control room in a tertiary care hospital by upgrading the available resources in the pandemic of COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic started, a tertiary care hospital of central Gujarat faced problems in developing communication and coordination between the doctors as there was a lack of emergency control room (ECR) set up. This article documents the process of establishing ECR using locally available resources. The department of Community Medicine (CM) was made in-charge of ECR. All information technology (IT) equipment were supplied by hospital administration as per the demand. Various challenges experienced by the staff of CM were discussed with the authorities and specialists from respective departments and quick intermediate solutions were adopted. In July-2020, ECR was established with IT support which accelerated the sharing of laboratory findings and patient details to the treating physician. Dedicated smart phones were assigned to each floor providing real time patient updates through Whatsapp groups and video calling feature was used to establish effective communication between patients and relatives. The hospital also collaborated with a local NGO that provided manpower to address queries at ECR. This study concludes that focusing on utilising local resources and manpower and training the available personnel to handle the problems in the best possible ways made the system work properly at the time of crisis.

The RADTRAD analysis methodology for the Fuel Handling Accident during the long-term shutdown period of Chinshan Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract This study presents a methodology for the Fuel Handling Accident (FHA) analysis during the long-term shutdown period with the fuels still residing in the reactor core for the Chinshan BWR/4 Nuclear Power Plant. This methodology can be used to calculate the radiation dose received by the control room personnel, assuming failure in safety systems, facilities or structures. The computer code RADTRAD is employed to perform the transport and release of radioactive inventories first, and then calculate the control room dose based on appropriate dose conversion factor for the FHA. The results show that even failure in safety systems, facilities or structures, the whole body dose, thyroid dose and beta-skin dose are well below the acceptance limits specified in the Standard Review Plan.

Information System Design Library Management At Jakarta Television Station

Monitoring and management of program material/content on television stations is crucial for it to be run and presented effectively and efficiently. This writing explains the obstacles faced and determines the right solution to overcome each obstacle faced. Using descriptive presentation and data collection methods carried out in the form of literature studies, field studies in the form of observations, interviews and documentation. Based on research, it can be concluded that PT ITV still uses other TV systems to record program data, so that PT ITV has difficulties in monitoring content material, limited access to using this system. Having a computerized Mandiri Library Management system is a must according to PT ITV's needs. In its creation, there were 4 actors/Users in this information system, namely: Programming, Library, QC (Quality Control), and MCR (Master Control Room). Programming can input the program Playlist, the Library can manage the program Playlist data, QC can check and make status changes, and MCR can see the daily Playlist that is ready to be broadcast.

Evaluation of Extended Storage of Swine Complete Feed for Inactivation of Viral Contamination and Effect on Nutritional, Microbiological, and Toxicological Profiles

The extended storage of feed ingredients has been suggested as a method to mitigate the risk of pathogen transmission through contaminated ingredients. To validate the approach of extended storage of complete swine feed for the inactivation of swine viruses, an experiment was conducted wherein swine feed was inoculated with 10 mL of 1 × 105 TCID50/mL of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), and Senecavirus A (SVA) and stored for 58 d at 23.9 °C. Measures of feed quality were also evaluated at the initiation and conclusion of the storage period including screening for mycotoxins, characterization of select microbiological measures, and stability of phytase and dietary vitamins. Storing feed for 58 d under either ambient or anaerobic and temperature-controlled storage conditions did not result in substantial concerns related to microbiological profiles. Upon exposure to the feed following 58 d of storage in a swine bioassay, previously confirmed naïve pigs showed no signs of PEDV or SVA replication as detected by the PCR screening of oral fluids and serum antibody screening. Infection with SVA was documented in the positive control room through diagnostic testing through the State of Minnesota. For PRRSV, the positive control room demonstrated infection. For rooms consuming inoculated feed stored for 58 d, there was no evidence of PRRSV infection with the exception of unintentional aerosol transmission via a documented biocontainment breach. In summary, storing feed for 58 d at anaerobic and temperature-controlled environmental conditions of 23.9 °C validates that the extended storage of complete swine feed can be a method to reduce risks associated with pathogen transmission through feed while having minimal effects on measures of nutritional quality.

Looking beyond the screen: A systematic review of safety in control rooms

As a complex socio-technical system, the Control Room (CR) is central to many industries, such as process, aviation, transportation, and mining. CRs' complexity impacts the safety, operational, engineering, regulatory, and financial performance of the system. In this study, a search strategy was defined and applied to three reputable databases: Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed. The search results underwent a two-stage screening process based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria were investigating the safety in the CR, full-text availability, and writing in English. The exclusion criteria were unrelated to the safety in the CR, non-English Language, and non-original studies. A total of 59 studies were included in the analysis. The included articles were systematically reviewed from the Human Reliability Assessment (HRA) and Human Factors Engineering (HFE) perspectives. Since these records covered various subjects related to human reliability and human factor aspects, a categorization step was added to the study process. In this step, all included studies were categorized based on their subjects. A total of 7 categories were identified, including reliability (17 documents), safety performance (13 documents), decision-support systems (7 documents), fire safety (2 documents), communication/teamwork (11 documents), situation awareness (4 documents), and others (5 documents). Finally, the included studies in each category were analyzed and discussed. The results of this study help identify different aspects of safety in the control room and plan to improve their safety weaknesses, which ultimately leads to an increase in the efficiency of employees and various industries.

Variable evaporating temperature control strategy for a VRF system based on continual estimation of cooling capacity demand of rooms

A variable refrigerant flow system has multiple indoor units for cooling different rooms, and the cooling capacity supply of indoor units depends on evaporating temperature. Existing control strategies of VRF systems generally adopt a constant evaporating temperature which should be low enough to meet the large cooling capacity demand under full load condition, resulting in low energy efficiency. In order to improve energy efficiency, a variable evaporating temperature control strategy is developed, in which evaporating temperature is permitted to rise with the decrease of cooling capacity demand under part load conditions. During the control process, cooling capacity demand of rooms is continually estimated based on indoor thermal balance and room temperature response, and the target evaporating temperature is predicted based on the balance between the cooling capacity supply of indoor units and the cooling capacity demand of rooms. The proposed control strategy has been applied in a VRF system, and its energy efficiency and room temperature variation are tested and compared with those of a same type VRF system that adopts the constant evaporating temperature control strategy. It is shown that the proposed control strategy can improve energy efficiency by 12.6 % and control room temperature fluctuations within ± 0.5 °C.

Indian Model of Integrated Healthcare (IMIH): a conceptual framework for a coordinated referral system in resource-constrained settings

IntroductionWith the escalating burden of chronic disease and multimorbidity in India, owing to its ageing population and overwhelming health needs, the Indian Health care delivery System (HDS) is under constant pressure due to rising public expectations and ambitious new health goals. The three tired HDS should work in coherence to ensure continuity of care, which needs a coordinated referral system. This calls for optimising health care through Integrated care (IC). The existing IC models have been primarily developed and adopted in High-Income Countries. The present study attempts to review the applicability of existing IC models and frame a customised model for resource-constrained settings.MethodsA two-stage methodology was used. Firstly, a narrative literature review was done to identify gaps in existing IC models, as per the World Health Organization framework approach. The literature search was done from electronic journal article databases, and relevant literature that reported conceptual and theoretical concepts of IC. Secondly, we conceptualised an IC concept according to India's existing HDS, validated by multiple rounds of brainstorming among co-authors. Further senior co-authors independently reviewed the conceptualised IC model as per national relevance.ResultsExisting IC models were categorised as individual, group and disease-specific, and population-based models. The limitations of having prolonged delivery time, focusing only on chronic diseases and being economically expensive to implement, along with requirement of completely restructuring and reorganising the existing HDS makes the adoption of existing IC models not feasible for India. The Indian Model of Integrated Healthcare (IMIH) model proposes three levels of integration: Macro, Meso, and Micro levels, using the existing HDS. The core components include a Central Gateway Control Room, using existing digital platforms at macro levels, a bucket overflow model at the meso level, a Triple-layered Concentric Circle outpatient department (OPD) design, and a three-door OPD concept at the micro level.ConclusionIMIH offers features that consider resource constraints and local context of LMICs while being economically viable. It envisages a step toward UHC by optimising existing resources and ensuring a continuum of care. However, health being a state subject, various socio-political and legal/administrative issues warrant further discussion before implementation.

Radiation dose in radiologist from cerebral angiography using optically stimulated luminescence dosimeter

Background: The number of cerebral angiography procedures is increasing, resulting in higher X-ray radiation doses received by radiologists. Consequently, understanding the radiation doses received by radiologists and the accumulation of radiation in control rooms is crucial for guiding prevention strategies against radiation hazards. Objectives: This study aimed to measure and evaluate radiation doses to the hands, lenses of the eyes, and thyroids of radiologists performing cerebral angiography procedures, as well as to measure the accumulated radiation dose in the control room. Materials and methods: OSL dosimeters were placed on the eyeglass frames, thyroids, hands, and legs of radiologists performing 20 cerebral angiography procedures, as well as on the wall and window of the control room. Results: Radiologists’ average radiation doses were measured at specific body parts as follows: left eye (49 µSv), right eye (15 µSv), left hands (34 µSv), right hands (16 µSv), left legs (27 µSv), right legs (7 µSv), and thyroid glands (14 µSv). Notably, the received doses remained well within the maximum radiation dose limit established by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). When calculating the maximum number of procedures that can be performed annually, we based it on the limit of the radiation dose that the eyes’ lenses should not exceed. Our findings revealed that the permissible number of procedures determined by the lens radiation dose limit, should not surpass 405 cases annually (equivalent to 34 cases per month). The radiation dose from therapeutic angiography procedures was discovered to be up to 5 times higher than that from diagnostic angiography procedures. The maximum accumulated radiation dose in the control room was 1.18 µSv/hr, which remained below the limit of the Department of Medical Sciences (< 3 µSv/hr). Conclusion: Radiologists receive less radiation from cerebral diagnostic angiography than therapeutic angiography. Organs on the left side were exposed to greater radiation levels than those on the right side. Wearing radiation protection devices during each procedure can reduce radiation exposure and mitigate long-term effects on radiologists. It is recommended to monitor and calculate the accumulated radiation dose of workers to ensure their exposure remains within safety limits.

Numerical simulation of indoor air distribution and wall heat storage under accident conditiohs in a main control room

The main control room serves as a refuge for staff in a nuclear power plant in the event of an accident. To determine whether the control room can meet habitability requirements under accident conditions, this study utilized CFD methods to establish a habitability model of the main control room under such conditions. The changing trends of temperature and velocity near personnel were analyzed. The numerical results indicate that the building envelope significantly contributes to reducing the indoor temperature. The average wall temperature measured at 72 hours was 27?C, with an average temperature increase of 4?C. The highest average ambient temperature in the main control room occurred at 24 hours. At this time, the indoor ambient temperature reached approximately 34.62?C, with a temperature increase of 11.62?C, while the wind speed near the personnel remained below 0.2 m/s, meeting habitability requirements for personnel under extreme conditions.

The ATLAS Alarm Helper

The Detector Safety System is the last line of defence to protect the ATLAS detector against abnormal and potentially even unforeseen situations. It is designed to return the detector to a safe state based on predefined actions triggered by alarms which are triggered on their part by specific sets of conditions. Every alarm whether it results in an action taken or not is followed up by the operations team that assesses the criticality, takes countermeasures and identifies the point of failure. From experience abnormal situations can result either from faults or from side effects of planned interventions which were either not properly identified despite the mandatory planning and review or where a mistake during execution occurred. In many cases there are multiple interventions ongoing simultaneously in order to profit from shutdown periods. The rapid analysis of alarms while the incident is ongoing is often complicated due to the complexity of the ATLAS detector and its infrastructure and the large number of responsible groups and experts. A new Alarm Helper tool was designed to assist the operation team, particularly the operator in the control room responsible for infrastructure and safety (SLIMOS – Shift Leader in Matters of Safety), by providing real-time information about ongoing interventions and the possible related causes of failure. The new tool will combine historical events, documentation, and limited knowledge about ongoing interventions. It extends the Expert System which visualizes and simulates infrastructure inter-dependencies and allows to trace faults or alarms to a list of potential points of failure. The new tool also proposes which experts should be contacted in the particular circumstances.

A Reliable People Tracking in Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Monitoring System Using Particle Filter

A Reliable People Tracking in Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Monitoring System Using Particle Filter

Safety of Evacuation According to Habitability Criteria for Main Control Room of Nuclear Power Plant

The operator is always present in the main control room (MCR) of a nuclear power plant. However, when a fire occurs in an MCR, different conditions for operator habitability are proposed using various criteria, and various evacuation safety evaluation results can be obtained. In this study, fire and evacuation simulations of an MCR were performed to determine the available safe egress time and required safe egress time. In addition, the evacuation safety and habitability of the MCR were evaluated for various criteria.

Seismic Vulnerability Curves for Non-reinforced Asymmetric Masonry Buildings Retrofitted with External Shotcrete: A Case Study on Control and Switchgear Room of Power Substations

Seismic Vulnerability Curves for Non-reinforced Asymmetric Masonry Buildings Retrofitted with External Shotcrete: A Case Study on Control and Switchgear Room of Power Substations

Система контроля и прогнозирования начала обледенения элементов конструкции высоковольтных воздушных линий электропередач

A variant of a combined method for monitoring power supply systems, taking into account joint work with wind generators, is considered. One of the factors affecting the reliability of the combined power supply system is the risk of icing of the elements of the combined power supply system. The article substantiates the relevance of research and development of a system for monitoring and predicting the onset of icing for structural elements of high-voltage overhead power lines with a voltage of 500 kV and above. Three options for implementing a system for monitoring and predicting the onset of icing are considered. The structure of the hardware part of the local system, structurally located in the upper part of the support, is proposed. An algorithm for transmitting information using combined communication channels from towers to a control room is described. A variant of the implementation of the system for monitoring and predicting the onset of icing according to the parameters of temperature and humidity of the environment is considered. An algorithm for the local subsystem controller software has been developed.

Safety risk assessment of sustainable construction based on projection pursuit model optimized by multi-intelligent algorithm: a case study of new chemical projects.

With the rapid development of urban and social economies, the safety accidents in the construction process of the new chemical plant have caused huge losses to the city. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risks in the construction process of chemical projects and propose preventive measures. A novel risk assessment model based on multi-intelligence algorithm optimization projection pursuit was developed to assess the construction safety risk and determine the risk level. In this model, the best-worst method and the entropy weight method were used as subjective and objective evaluation methods, respectively. The theory based on the idea of the distance function was applied to the model to calculate the combined weight value. The results showed that the three evaluation objects with the highest risk value were the air compression station plant, regional control room, and hazardous and solid waste temporary repository. The risk values of these three buildings were 2.2557, 2.2160, and 2.1654, respectively, and the corresponding risk level was high. On-site safety managers should take immediate measures in these high-risk buildings to reduce the possibility of accidents. This study is a new attempt to consider the construction safety risk of the new chemical project.

The potential impact of emotionally loaded stimuli on over/under-estimating neutral situations among power plant control-room operators.

Human emotions vary on a contextual basis. The significance of emotions becomes even more salient in Control Room Operators (CROs) in power plants. This study investigated the effects of emotionally loaded pictures on over/underestimating neutral situations. Twenty CROs voluntarily enrolled in the present study. Twenty-one blocks were considered, including ten emotionally loaded and 11 neutral blocks. The stimuli were alternatively submitted to subjects in random order. Each block comprised 13 images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), which were shown for 5 seconds. Subjects were required to complete the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) after exposure to the first and the last neutral blocks, which were identical. Our analyses showed significant differences between IAPS arousal and SAM1 and SAM2 arousal ratings (p SAM1&IAPS = 0.00, p SAM2&IAPS = 0.02). There was no significant relationship between the first and the second arousals, and emotionally loaded images corresponded to no significant difference in terms of valence. The findings suggested that the participants overestimated neutral situations compared with IAPS only in arousal level. Furthermore, CROs can still retain their ability to assess neutral situations in the case of viewing emotional stimuli, especially in valence level, at least half an hour after the first rating. A study design with pure negative/positive and high arousal levels may still provide even more significant results.

Quantum Key Distribution for Critical Infrastructures: Towards Cyber-Physical Security for Hydropower and Dams.

Hydropower facilities are often remotely monitored or controlled from a centralized remote control room. Additionally, major component manufacturers monitor the performance of installed components, increasingly via public communication infrastructures. While these communications enable efficiencies and increased reliability, they also expand the cyber-attack surface. Communications may use the internet to remote control a facility's control systems, or it may involve sending control commands over a network from a control room to a machine. The content could be encrypted and decrypted using a public key to protect the communicated information. These cryptographic encoding and decoding schemes become vulnerable as more advances are made in computer technologies, such as quantum computing. In contrast, quantum key distribution (QKD) and other quantum cryptographic protocols are not based upon a computational problem, and offer an alternative to symmetric cryptography in some scenarios. Although the underlying mechanism of quantum cryptogrpahic protocols such as QKD ensure that any attempt by an adversary to observe the quantum part of the protocol will result in a detectable signature as an increased error rate, potentially even preventing key generation, it serves as a warning for further investigation. In QKD, when the error rate is low enough and enough photons have been detected, a shared private key can be generated known only to the sender and receiver. We describe how this novel technology and its several modalities could benefit the critical infrastructures of dams or hydropower facilities. The presented discussions may be viewed as a precursor to a quantum cybersecurity roadmap for the identification of relevant threats and mitigation.

Multi-class classification of control room operators’ cognitive workload using the fusion of eye-tracking and electroencephalography

Chemical process industries are hazard intensive. Most industrial accidents occur today due to human error. For safe and efficient operation, it is therefore critical to ensure optimal operator performance. With the advent of Industry 4.0 and concomitant digitalization, the role of operators has become cognitively challenging. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the cognitive performance of operators. One of the major constructs to understand cognitive performance is the cognitive workload. An increase in cognitive workload often leads to degradation in performance. Traditional assessment techniques fail to capture cognitive aspects of performance. Recently, researchers in various domains such as aviation, driving, marine, and nuclear power have started to utilize physiological measures to gauge the cognitive workload of their operators. In our previous works, we have used electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking separately to assess the cognitive workload of operators in the process industries. In contrast, in this paper, we explore the benefits of their fusion in classifying process industry control room operators’ workload into low, medium, and high classes while they tackle abnormal situations. The methodology employs the fusion of metrics derived from pupil, gaze, and EEG data to train a decision tree-based model for workload classification. Our results reveal that fusion leads to an increase in classification accuracy of upto 22 %. The work has the potential to identify the expertise level of operators and hence, can be critical in ensuring their optimal performance.

Noise and vibration test analysis of working and resting spaces in subway equipment areas

Field measurements of noise and vibration were conducted in the working and resting space of the equipment area of the Guangzhou Railway Station subway station, using equivalent continuous A-weighted sound level (LAeq), maximum Z vibration level (VLzmax), and frequency division maximum vibration level (VLmax) for evaluation. The results of the study showed that: The worst noise environment in the car control room and the quietest in the locker room; Comparing the different normative limit requirements, the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound level of each measurement point meets the standard differently; Noise decreases with increasing frequency and noise is dominated by 100~200Hz; Under the influence of the train on the indoor vibration of the building, the values of frequency division maximum vibration level of each measurement point are greater than the values of maximum Z vibration level; Train passing time ground measurement point vertical vibration energy is mainly distributed in 50~250Hz, vibration acceleration level peak in 80~100Hz between. This study has some reference value for the evaluation of noise and vibration in the working and resting space of the equipment area of the subway station and is important for the improvement of the sound environment of the subway staff in the future.