Low Level Of Automation Research Articles

Display Integration Enhances Information Sampling and Decision Making in Automated Fault Management in a Simulated Spaceflight Micro-World

Fault management (FM) performance and information sampling behavior were examined while participants operated a complex micro-world that simulated system failures within a generic life-support system of a spacecraft. One group of participants was supported by an integrated display that facilitated fault identification while the other group had to rely on separated raw data readings. The effects of two modes of intelligent automation support were also examined. At a low level of automation (LOA), fault identification was generated along with an advisory on a sequence of recovery actions to be implemented manually at the operator's discretion. The higher LOA generated fault identification but allowed the operator a veto against automatic implementation of the suggested recovery plan. Automated fault identification was unreliable 30% percent of the time; in these trials the automation missed fault identification, gave a false alarm to a nominal situation, or provided false or incomplete fault identification. Initiation of proper recovery when the automation failed was less accurate and slowest when operators were supplied with the non-integrated display, but only when they operated at the low LOA mode prior to the failure. This effect was associated with superior information sampling behavior at the higher LOA when automation was reliable. Display integration and the higher LOA thus supported more efficient sampling of fault relevant displays thereby, promoting better fault state awareness in the presence of reliable automation. This also benefited fault management when the automation failed.

CAD-CAM integration using machining features

Commercial mechanical CAD/CAM packages provide a rather low level of automation of process planning tasks and a weak connection between their CAD and CAM/NC part programming modules. Features have primarily been used as geometry construction 'macros' without fully realizing their potential in supporting downstream applications, such as process planning. This paper demonstrates the use of features in automating certain process planning tasks and integrating CAD and CAM modules in commercial CAD/CAM software. Automated process planning involves two important tasks; machining feature extraction and feature-based process planning. The CAD model of the part and the stock is exported via STEP from the commercial CAD system to an external machining feature recognition system. The recognized features are used in conjunction with knowledge-based methods to prepare a process plan for the part. Set-up Planning, Operation Sequencing and Tool Selection are performed automatically based on criteria such as feature shapes, feature locations, tool access directions and feasibility of workpiece locating and clamping. Features and manufacturing attributes are exported to a commercial CAM system for toolpath generation and verification. A prototype system was implemented in conjunction with a commercial CAD/CAM package, SDRC/I-DEAS.

The Intelligent Mine

Mining is commonly seen as a typical basic industry with rough and even dangerous working conditions, heavy environmental load, and a low level of high-technology and automation with much manual work and operations.A mining operation (open pit or underground) is a very complex one consisting of many manual, physical, mechanical and logistical operations with different human interfaces and decisions. For this reason it is a demanding and potential area for all applications of automation and information technology: controlling difficult non-linear, timevarying multivariable processes and machines; solving of ergonomic safety and environmental problems; automation of logistical systems; applying robotics, mechatronics, and information handling, etc. In addition to that, big economic sums are involved with these operations.On the other hand, automation technology has developed towards intelligent and adaptive systems including some from above-mentioned and subfields of automation, and connecting them with modern information and communication technologies makes the idea of an intelligent and unmanned mine more and more feasible in the near future.This requires intensive co-operation and co-ordination between the mining industry and manufacturers of mining machinery. This has been successfully accomplished in the 5 year Intelligent Mine research and development program in Finland.The basic elements of an intelligent mine concept are:-mine-wide information and data acquisition system-high-speed two-directional mine-wide communication network for real-time monitoring and control-computerized information management, mine planning, control and maintenance systems-automated and tele-operated machinery and equipment which are connected to the information system-links to the public information networksThe degree of automation of an intelligent mine depends on many technical and economical factors. The basic precondition for such an approach is that it will improve the total economy of the mine.

Japanese Service Industries and their Overseas Potential

Service industries in Japan are surveyed and their competitiveness internationally assessed. Even though service levels in Japan might be the highest anywhere, export potential is limited. The low level of automation and mechanisation has made personal attention still the most common mode of providing service. In many services dependence on imported technology and reliance on special regulatory conditions in Japan combine to make strengths country-specific and with low potential abroad. Japan's language and cultural differences from the rest of the world - including the view that ‘service should be free’ -make inter-personal skills very difficult to transfer overseas. The overseas expansion, where it occurs, is most likely to come through strategic alliances with, or acquisitions of, Western firms.

A Quarter Century of Production Practices

In the past quarter century, oilfield production practices have benefited from scientific analysis, which has enabled us to cope more efficiently and economically with increasingly difficult conditions. Both operating engineers and research workers have participated in refining the remarkable complex of equipment and participated in refining the remarkable complex of equipment and facilities that supplies the world with energy today. Introduction During the first century of the petroleum industry in America, patterns of oilfield production practices were established that continue to the present day. The system of oilfield equipment and facilities including pumps, well heads, gathering lines, tank batteries, separators, and treaters was well established in this period. Industry people, many of them anonymous, contributed ingenuity, skill, and persistent effort to creating a highly effective and efficient system of transferring crude oil from reservoirs to pipelines. Much of this was trial and error, and we pipelines. Much of this was trial and error, and we are indebted to the mechanical ability of oilfield workers as well as to the pioneer efforts of diverse engineering specialists. Their methods have been adopted world wide, and out of the orderly study and analysis of these methods grew the profession of petroleum engineering. Production Automation Production Automation Oilfield automation is exceptional in that it is a completely new development of recent years. Lease automatic custody transfer (LACT) and automatic well test facilities are the most widely used advancements in production automation. Zaba has described the acceptance of LACT over the period from 1955 to 1962. His paper provides a history of cost data, showing that costs decreased from $20,000 for early custom LACT units in 1956 to $5,000 for standard LACT units in 1961. The significance of this development is dramatized by an example of 78 wells that first were served by 14 tank batteries, 98 tanks, and 17 treaters, and then later were served by only one LACT unit and one tank battery with one tank and two treaters. Positive-displacement meters are used to measure liquid volume, and capacitance probes are used to indicate the percentage of water in the effluent stream. LACT facilities use these for measuring BS and W. The same approach is used at automatic well test satellites to measure net oil. A classic paper by Warren analyzed the effect of crude composition, temperature, pressure, water content, and electrical frequency in the capacitance-type probe. Mechanical analog integrators were still being used in 1962, but by 1968 Zimmerman et al. reported the acceptance of electronic integrators. The use of capacitance probes at high water cuts presents problems, and the best study of the problem of oil-in-water problems, and the best study of the problem of oil-in-water emulsions passing through a capacitance probe appears in a paper by Kite. This paper also provides guidance on varying paper by Kite. This paper also provides guidance on varying the water cut in the effluent stream during the dump cycle of a test separator. Remotely initiated radio alarm systems were popular in the mid-1960's and are still used, together with remotely initiated automatic telephone dialing systems. Martin described a broad range of equipment and techniques for what has been called "low level automation." JPT P. 1425