Remote Operations Center Research Articles

Deep Learning Test Platform for Maritime Applications: Development of the eM/S Salama Unmanned Surface Vessel and Its Remote Operations Center for Sensor Data Collection and Algorithm Development

In response to the global megatrends of digitalization and transportation automation, Turku University of Applied Sciences has developed a test platform to advance autonomous maritime operations. This platform includes the unmanned surface vessel eM/S Salama and a remote operations center, both of which are detailed in this article. The article highlights the importance of collecting and annotating multi-modal sensor data from the vessel. These data are vital for developing deep learning algorithms that enhance situational awareness and guide autonomous navigation. By securing relevant data from maritime environments, we aim to enhance the autonomous features of unmanned surface vessels using deep learning techniques. The annotated sensor data will be made available for further research through open access. An image dataset, which includes synthetically generated weather conditions, is published alongside this article. While existing maritime datasets predominantly rely on RGB cameras, our work underscores the need for multi-modal data to advance autonomous capabilities in maritime applications.

Human-autonomy collaboration in supervisory risk control of autonomous ships

This paper presents a method for developing and testing a risk-based control system, as a first step towards including the human supervisor explicitly in the design of the system. The result is a control system with improved decision-making capabilities compared to existing control systems. The methodology presented in the paper uses the Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyse the risks of an autonomous ship within its concept of operations (CONOPS), and a Human-STPA (H-STPA) is used to analyse human responsibilities and involvement. The STPA results are then used to construct a Bayesian belief network (BBN)-based risk model to assess the operational risk of the ship. This is represented as a risk cost, describing the expected cost of consequences caused by potential hazardous events. This cost is combined with fuel costs, operations costs, and the potential loss of income if new missions are not undertaken using a supervisory risk controller (SRC). The SRC is capable of making decisions about how the ship should be safely operated and notifies the human supervisor in due time when it is necessary for them to take control. The last part of the methodology presented in this paper is testing the control system using a set of verification objectives based on results from the STPA and H-STPA. A case study involving an autonomous cargo ship with a human supervisor located in a remote operation center (ROC) is included; it shows that the proposed control system can operate the ship safely in different conditions and situations. By designing the SRC to notify the human supervisor before it reaches its operational limit, the ship is able to operate in a wider range of conditions compared to when just the autonomous control system is in charge. Hence, the proposed methodology shows promising results and provides useful insights related to shared control for autonomous ships.

Integrated Satellite–Terrestrial Connectivity for Autonomous Ships: Survey and Future Research Directions

An autonomous vessel uses multiple different radio technologies such as satellites, mobile networks and dedicated narrowband systems, to connect to other ships, services, and the remote operations center (ROC). In-ship communication is mainly implemented with wired technologies but also wireless links can be used. In this survey paper, we provide a short overview of autonomous and remote-controlled systems. This paper reviews 5G-related standardization in the maritime domain, covering main use cases and both the role of autonomous ships and that of people onboard. We discuss the concept of a connectivity manager, an intelligent entity that manages complex set of technologies, integrating satellite and terrestrial technologies together, ensuring robust in-ship connections and ship-to-outside connections in any environment. This survey paper describes the architecture and functionalities of connectivity management required for an autonomous ship to be able to operate globally. As a specific case example, we have implemented a research environment consisting of ship simulators with connectivity components. Our simulation results on the effects of delays to collision avoidance confirm the role of reliable connectivity for safety. Finally, we outline future research directions for autonomous ship connectivity research, providing ideas for further work.

DFIG-Based Wind Turbine Predictive Control Employing a Median Filter to Mitigate Impulsive Interferences on Transmitted Wireless References

On-grid wind power sources are becoming essential elements in modern electricity grids. Their integration with modern control and telecommunication strategies, especially involving wireless communications, is an irreversible trend. However, the information signals (monitoring and control) transmitted through the wireless channel are prone to noise and interference. In the proposed scheme, the power references are dispatched from a remote operation center to the doubly-fed induction generator based wind turbine predictive control by a wireless coded system in association with median filter to mitigate the impulsive interferences. In this context, for a proper evaluation of the proposal, a co-simulation of telecommunication and power system is performed to observe the deleterious effects to be treated by the filter. The results obtained prove the efficacy of the proposed method. Additionally, a comparison is made between the system based on the median filter and on other filtering methods.

An analysis of performance by co-simulation of a wind PMSG using Z-source inverter and coded wireless power control for smart grid applications

Wireless signals dispatched from a remote operation center in a smart grid scenario for commanding aerogenerators are susceptible to transmission errors. In this applied context, this paper proposes the use of co-simulation (power and telecommunications) for a full analysis of the performance of a wind permanent magnet synchronous generator using coded wireless power control. To a complete proposal evaluation, the wireless system and the aerogenerator control models are performed to observe the operational conditions of the complete system. The obtained results endorse the operational effectiveness of the aerogenerator with coded wireless power control if an adequate coding technique is applied.

Online Reconstruction of Drifting Underwater Ice Topography: The 2D case

An online estimation design for a drifting two dimensional ice topography is presented. Under the assumption that the topography can be accurately represented by a truncated Fourier series, and given a moving window of measurements along the topography, an observer design is proposed to estimate the parameters of the model. The chosen method ensures an online cutoff of higher wave numbers in the spectrum representing the topography such that sufficient data compression is achieved for transmitting the model parameters through a limited hydroacoustic communication channel. This allows online reconstruction of the underwater drifting ice topography at a remote operation center. The observer is shown to be uniformly globally exponentially stable under a persistency of excitation condition. For comparison, a design based on B-spline basis functions is also presented. The effectiveness of the estimation algorithm is verified on a set of real ice draft measurements taken from the underside of an ice sheet off the coast of Greenland.

Morphological filter applied in a wireless deadbeat control scheme within the context of smart grids

This paper proposes a digital morphological filter to be applied on reference signals for a deadbeat control of a doubly fed induction generator. The signals are wireless-transmitted from a remote operation center and prone to be corrupted by spikes caused by a wireless fading channel. The proposed technique filtering and the control scheme are to be implemented in a microprocessor locally placed at the generator site. The filter acts on the signals at the receiving end of the channel and its outputs serves as clean references to the deadbeat control. In order to evaluate the filter performance, corrupted signals have been generated by means of a simulated channel linking the remote center and the induction generator. The results show the method is efficient in filtering out the spikes without provoking excessive delays.

A Study on the Deriving Requirements of ARGO Operation System

Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) has been developing one mobile and one stationary SLR system since 2008 named as ARGO-M and ARGO-F, respectively. KASI finished the step of deriving the system requirements of ARGO. The requirements include definitions and scopes of various software and hardware components which are necessary for developing the ARGO-M operation system. And the requirements define function, performance, and interface requirements. The operation system consisting of ARGO-M site, ARGO-F site, and Remote Operation Center (ROC) inside KASI is designed for remote access and the automatic tracking and control system which are the main operation concept of ARGO system. To accomplish remote operation, we are considering remote access to ARGO-F and ARGO-M from ROC. The mobile-phone service allows us to access the ARGO-F remotely and to control the system in an emergency. To implement fully automatic tracking and control function in ARGO-F, we have investigated and described the requirements about the automatic aircraft detection system and the various meteorological sensors. This paper addresses the requirements of ARGO Operation System.

The LHC Physics Center

Participating in the commissioning of the CMS LHC detector at CERN (near Geneva, Switzerland) and contributing efficiently to CMS physics from a distance may prove challenging. One attempt to ease the “contribution from afar” and enhance both communication and fast exchange of expert knowledge is the development of the LHC Physics Center (LPC) at FNAL. The following features are thought to be important for the LPC to succeed: a well-equipped real place to visit; physical presence of experts (with strong connections to CERN) on detector, software, and physics-analysis issues; availability of large-scale computing resources and corresponding user support; frequent tutorials and workshops; access to Tevatron experience and knowledge; and a remote operations center (ROC) for monitoring the accelerator and CMS detector. Examples of current LPC activities are presented.

The installation and test results for Albany HTS cable project

Albany HTS cable project is going on with the support of US Federal and New York States. The HTS cables included the Bi2223 tapes sintered by CT-OP (controlled over-pressure) process has 34.5kV and 800A capacity. The cable system was manufactured in Japan, and shipped to Albany. A 320m cable and a 30m cable were installed into the conduits under the ground. Subsequently, a splice box was assembled in the vault, and two terminations were connected to the HTS cable on the ground. Cryogenic refrigeration system was also mounted at the site by BOC. Initial cooling process was conducted as measuring distributed temperatures along the cable. The results of off-grid test, i.e. measuring heat loss, pressure loss, critical current, and DC withstand test, were carried out successfully. HTS cable system was connected to the real grid on 20 July 2006. The cable has been operated stably for 3months as monitored by Remote Operation Center of BOC. This report outlines the installation and test results on Albany HTS cable project.

Technology Update: "Smart" Technology Moves to Intervention Operations

Intervention jobs often get into difficulty because of a lack of accurate downhole information, despite surface indications to the contrary. For example, milling assemblies are sometimes retrieved with little to no mill wear, and over-shots and spears have been pulled empty despite positive surface indications. A recent job planned for 14 runs and 30 days of rig time to recover a gravel-pack assembly from 25,000 ft, but lack of quality downhole information forced an additional 10 trips and consumed an additional 28 rig days. Without the ability to see true indications of torque, weight-on-mill, and jar-impact loads, washover shoes were pulled either untouched or junk cut, and debris was left in the well. As wells become deeper, more tortuous, and more technically challenging for intervention, it is crucial to know more about what is actually occurring at the tool face. Traditional surface-based indicators often do not reflect the actual forces being exerted at and around downhole tools. Adding "smartness" to well-intervention operations provides valuable information on downhole parameters, including weight or tension on the tool, torque, revolutions per minute (RPM), bending stress, vibration, and pressures, that have not been seen previously at surface. Even small discrete variations can be detected. The surface information, which can be viewed from both a rig-floor monitor and a remote real-time operating center, enables better understanding of what is happening downhole. It also provides the well team with a new level of process control and real-time decision-making capability while intervention work is being carried out. Armed with valuable information and improved process control, the team can operate intervention tools with greater precision and, most importantly, with consistent reliability. Fig. 1 illustrates the value that can be realized from smart intervention by improving performance and reducing risk exposure. The diagram shows that the cost of a well intervention is dominated by rig cost rather than service company charges and the operator's large exposure to cost escalation during problem jobs vs. the relatively low preventive cost to mitigate disaster. Smart intervention offers a method of reducing cost and risk in that portion of a well program in which nonproductive time (NPT) is an issue. Technology Basics Baker Oil Tools has developed a smart intervention system that integrates a modular intervention-performance sub (IPS) and a base measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tool into the bottomhole assembly (BHA). The IPS features an array of sensors, including accelerometers, strain gauges, and magnetometers (Fig. 2). All sensors are sampled at 1 kHz, and a digital signal processor inside the tool provides static parameters plus diagnostics to characterize the downhole environment. The outputs include weight on mill and mill bounce; tension at tool; torque; downhole RPM and stick/slip severity; bending stress, dogleg severity and BHA whirl; and differential pressure with equivalent circulating density. Selected parameters are transmitted uphole by means of mud-pulse telemetry. The control feedback loop complements the experienced field technician's "sense of feel" while operating the work string at surface. Capable of receiving downlink signals, the smart system provides a link for remote control of future intervention tools. Display screens present the downhole parameters in conjunction with surface-acquired data and can be linked to a remote operations center for monitoring.

Forecasting for a Large Field Program: STORM-FEST

Abstract Stormscale Operational and Research Meteorology-Fronts Experimental Systems Test (STORM-FEST) was held from 1 February to 15 March 1992 in the central United States as a preliminary field systems test for an eventual larger-scale program. One of the systems tested was a remote operations center, located in Boulder, Colorado, which was significantly displaced from the main field concentration of scientists and research aircraft. In concert with the remote operations center test was a test of remote forecasting support, also centered in Boulder. The remote forecasting for STORM-FEST was the first major cooperative effort for the Boulder-Denver Experimental Forecast Facility (EFF), a cooperative effort between operations and research aimed at finding more effective ways of addressing applied meteorological problems. Two other newly formed EFF's, at Norman, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, Missouri, also played key roles in the forecasting/nowcasting support. A description of the design and function of thi...

D4 Digital Channel Bank Family: TheSLC™-96 System

The SLC∗-96 system is a digital subscriber carrier system that can carry up to 96 subscriber channels, when fully equipped, between a Central Office Terminal (COT) and a Remote Terminal (RT), using T1 digital lines. Typical economic applications are for expanding the service capability of existing cable plant or for new wire center deferral. Recent application studies show that SLC-96 systems will be economically attractive in many permanent subscriber applications. In addition to Message Telephone Service (MTS), the system can provide coin services, voice-frequency special services, and digital data services. The SLC-96 system is based on the transmission and physical format of the D4 system used for interoffice trunks. The system employs μ255 pulse code modulation (PCM) for voice transmission and, as a result, will allow the direct interface of the RT with a digital central office. Its maintenance features include channel and drop testing from a local test desk; single-ended, active, T1 fault-locating; automatic T1 line protection; extensive local and remote alarm displays; and outputs that can be transmitted to a remote operations center such as the Switching Control Center (SCC). The channel and drop testing scheme requires a Pair Gain Test Controller (PGTC) to be installed in each wire center containing one or more SLC-96 systems. Various other features that will enhance the application of the SLC-96 system in the loop plant include extended range channel units, remote T1 line power feed, and a variety of RT enclosures.