Utilizing Immersive Technology to Enhance Plant Operations and Speed Up Knowledge Transfer

The objective of this paper is to share current operational challenges concerning Oil and Gas (O&G) operators, and to suggest certain solutions/applications from the IR4.0 technology toolbox. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) will be discussed to address the operational challenges detailed in this paper, while simultaneously showing how AR/VR can be leveraged to speed up knowledge transfer process, especially at the current alarming rates of attritions. The proposed approach is to first provide clear and concise explanation of the current challenges from an O&G operational point of view. Next, AR/VR will be explained and clearly defined to show its general benefits, before zooming in to innovate, and capitalize on specific features to address the challenges at hand. AR/VR can play a key role in managing other installed technologies (i.e. artificial intelligence, mobility, etc.) to transfer essential data to proper personnel at the right time and location. In other words, AR/VR can link up to all other applications and create one central hub to organize, streamline, and create actionable data in any facility. While showing the operational benefits, AR/VR will also be discussed to show how it can speed up knowledge transfer and reduce training costs, especially when software developers work together with O&G technologists to create meaningful product, rather than a generic one that truly serves no one. The result is showing that AR/VR can clearly solve and enhance O&G operations by delivering important prescriptive messages with knowledge-based actions to concerned parties at the proper location, so they can take timely, proactive actions. Simultaneously, acting ahead of time translates into reduced plant upsets, while increasing safety and well-being of all plant personnel. Most O&G companies employ stat-of-the-art technologies to address challenges affecting various parts of their operating facilities. Integrating these technologies and allowing operators to organize and strategize where and how to start, and showing potential links is itself a challenge. AR/VR can address this predicament, if employed properly. This paper will address AR/VR implicit and explicit capabilities in more details. The novelty of this paper is not in presenting AR/VR technology, as it has been around for several years, but rather in showing how to design an agile system to take advantage of the technology. The newly designed system can incorporate several scattered software applications across a facility; therefore AR/VR will act as an orchestrator by managing the flow of data and ensuring they reach the right personnel at the right time.