Service system and method for remotely assisting mainteance

Abstract

A service system and method for assisting maintenance of one or more facilities, such as maritime vessels or factories. The system comprises a server and a relational database being in communication with the server. The relational database is configured to store: facility data associated with each of the multiple facilities, and the facility data associated with each facility is divided into facility sections, each facility section is associated with an area of a specific facility. The facility data comprises panoramic data associated with each facility section of said specific facility. The database further comprises equipment entries associated with facility equipment located at each of the facility sections of the multiple facilities. The relational database also comprises error code entries related to each of the one or more facilities and said error codes entries being associated with equipment of the related facility. The error code entries are also associated with alerts that may be transmitted from a facility management system and which the server is configured to receive. The service system is configured to link the alert to a specific piece of facility equipment via the association with the error code entries. In some preferred variants the service system also comprises a remote specialist interface and / or an on-board device which allows users to access and display data. In such preferred embodiments the facility equipment associated with an error code entry may be visually highlighted for easy identification.

Description

[0001] SERVICE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REMOTELY ASSISTING MAINTEANCE

[0002] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present invention relates to the field of service and maintenance of facilities, in particular systems for aiding the remote assistance of maintenance on facilities such as maritime vessels.

[0004] BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Facilities such as maritime vessels and factories relying on complicated machinery such as motors, communication units, and machining tools to name a few, are highly dependent on efficient maintenance of such facility equipment.

[0006] Maintenance requires diagnostics of the need for maintenance and establishing the relevant maintenance operations to be carried out. Maintenance operations include functional checks, servicing, repairing, or replacing of devices, equipment, machinery, and facility infrastructure. Maintenance is aimed at minimizing the downtime caused by malfunctions, whether in production or processes, in order for the productivity and the profitability of a given facility to be kept as high as possible. Hence, it is also necessary that the maintenance operations themselves are efficiently carried out to minimize downtime due to maintenance. However, maintenance operations are subject to considerable uncertainty both with respect to timing, i.e. when maintenance or replacement of facility equipment is in fact needed, and with respect to the scope of a given maintenance operation, i.e. which parts of a given piece of facility equipment will in fact need maintenance. Hence, maintenance requires specialist knowledge as well as access to data relating to the facility equipment, operation history and the current state of the facility equipment and its location.

[0007] Various maintenance strategies may be employed, the most common being preventive and corrective maintenance, respectively. Under a corrective maintenance strategy, a part is not replaced until it has failed, while under a preventive maintenance strategy, the aim is to replace parts before failure occurs.

[0008] Preventive maintenance is the care and servicing by on-board personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment in satisfactory operating condition by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects. Preventive maintenance strategies can be further subdivided into usage and condition based preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance may e.g. be based on the time a part has been in use and / or the monitored conditions of a part, such that change in operation is used as a basis of determining when maintenance is needed.

[0009] Carrying out the necessary diagnostics and maintenance operations at facilities such as maritime vessels and factories typically require trained specialists and may even rely on a team of specialists having different fields of expertise. Thus, one or more of the maintenance specialists will typically be located away from the facility where the facility equipment in need of maintenance is located. In particular, in the case of vessels such as ships, that are offshore for prolonged periods of time, the on-board personnel have limited access to expert knowledge. This in turn extends the time during which the maritime vessel needs to be docked for maintenance as diagnostics and maintenance can only be carried out when the maintenance specialists have access to the facility equipment.

[0010] A similar problem arises for factories that may be remotely located requiring the maintenance specialists to travel to inspect facility equipment and determined the necessary cause of action. This may delay the diagnostic process and maintenance particularly if additional maintenance specialists have to be called in further increasing downtime of facility equipment.

[0011] Some of these issues are alleviated by the employment of predictive maintenance based on monitoring and measuring performance of the facility equipment or knowledge of the expected lifetime of the parts of the facility equipment. However, unexpected failures may still occur requiring some maintenance operations to be carried out by the on-board personnel before a maintenance specialist can attend the machinery or unexpected issues may be revealed upon inspection when routine maintenance is to be carried out, thus prolonging the downtime of the machinery.

[0012] Further, even locally handleable maintenance not needing the aid of a remote specialist may be complicated by the alerts of the facility system often being specific only to that facility and being obscure such that the on-board personnel has issues identifying the relevant equipment in need of maintenance based on the alerts of the system which may be only an error number or related to an equipment type when the facility may include multiple pieces of equipment of that type. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0013] Numerous objects and advantages, which will be evident from the description of the present invention, are according to a first aspect of the present invention obtained by:

[0014] A service system for assisting maintenance of multiple facilities, said system comprising: a server; a relational database being in communication with said server, said relational database configured to store: facility data associated with each of the multiple facilities, said facility data associated with each facility being divided into facility sections, each facility section associated with an area of a specific facility, said facility data comprising a virtual facility environment of a facility section, said virtual facility environment comprising photographic data overlaid with a three-dimensional model, equipment entries associated with facility equipment located at each of the facility sections of the multiple facilities; a specialist interface being located remotely from each of said multiple facilities, said specialist interface being in communication with said server and said specialist interface being configured to display data retrieved from said relational database; wherein said service system is configured to display said virtual facility environment on said specialist interface and to provide access to said equipment entries by selection of visual representations of equipment in said virtual facility environment.

[0015] In a more preferred embodiment, the first aspect of the invention is: a service system for assisting maintenance of one or more facilities, said system comprising a server configured to receive communication from facility management systems of each of the one or more facilities; a relational database being in communication with said server, said relational database being configured to store: facility data associated with each of the one or more facilities, facility data associated with each specific facility being divided into facility sections, each facility section associated with an area of said specific facility, said facility data comprising: panoramic data associated with each facility section of said specific facility, equipment entries associated with facility equipment located at each of the facility sections; error code entries related to each of the one or more facilities and said error codes entries being associated with equipment of the related facility; wherein said service system is configured to receive an alarm from said facility management system, said alarm identifying an error code of said relational database and said service system being configured to link said alarm to a specific piece of equipment via the association with said error code entries.

[0016] By the service system being suitable for assisting the maintenance of one or more facilities is understood that the system may be implemented for a single facility where many of the benefits of the service system will be achieved. Some embodiments may be even more beneficial when the service system is implemented to assist multiple facilities, such that the same server may comprise data related to each of the facilities thereby allowing the data to be centralised. In preferred variants where multiple facilities are connected to the same service system, user access is differentiated both regarding the retrieval and the updating of data, e.g. a remote service specialist may be able to access data regarding all facilities connected to the service system, while on-board personnel may only be able to access data related to the facility on which they are assigned.

[0017] By a facility management system is understood a computer or other processing system of the facility locally monitoring and interacting with facility equipment. For some facilities a single centralised facility system may receive input from facility equipment and being the sole access point for the service system. Other facilities may comprise multiple facility management systems, e.g. associated with different facility sections or for different processes of the facility. In such cases the service system may comprise a server configured to receive communication from each of the facility management systems of a facility from which data may be relevant to assisting the maintenance. The server may provide a communication way between various parts of the service system, e.g. a hub for communication transmitting and receiving data for the relational database as well as allowing access to this data from various locations, i.e. at the facilities and away from the facilities such as at a service centre. The server may also provide online access to the program and interface of the service system, in other variants the service system program and interface may be locally installed at access points such as an on-board device for on-board personnel and at a specialist device for external maintenance specialists to access.

[0018] By facility equipment is understood any technical equipment related to the facility which is registered in the service system. Hence, it is to be understood that the that a facility may have machinery and equipment which has not been included in the service system either because it has not yet been added to the service system or because it is not to be under the care of the maintenance specialists managing the service system. For example, there may be a number of computers or furniture which is under the care of different service providers.

[0019] By equipment entries is understood data related to each separate piece of facility equipment. The term equipment entries is used interchangeably with the term equipment data throughout this document. Equipment entries may include static data such as documents. Equipment entries may include dynamic data reflecting the changing status of the facility equipment. Dynamic data may include calculated data such as operation time and estimations of when maintenance is next required. Dynamic data may include measurement data related to the facility equipment such as energy consumption, temperature, and / or vibrations.

[0020] Equipment entries may include specifications, diagrams, maintenance guides, and / or operation manuals. Equipment entries may include service reports. Equipment entries may include lists of spare parts available and / or required. Equipment entries may further include photographs of the equipment which may include photographs of exterior and / or interior views of the equipment or photographs or video recordings of maintenance work being carried out. Photographic data may also include developments, i.e. photographs taken at different times or standard images of the type of equipment for comparison with photographic data of the specific equipment located at the facility. According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the equipment entries comprise manuals and service reports.

[0021] Having manuals and service reports located in the same system has multiple access benefits. Manuals provide information regarding the intended functionality and possible actions that may be taken when carrying out service and / or maintenance, while the service reports provide the historic perspective of any changes that may have been made. In systems known in the art, manuals and service reports will typically be stored separately with no direct linkage, worse yet service reports created on site and service reports created remotely by a remote maintenance specialist may not be accessible from several locations or stored together thereby causing a risk of incomplete data.

[0022] Photographic data may in the context of the application serve different purposes while being of same or similar type. The photographic data may be equipment photographs as described above serving the purpose of showing a specific piece of equipment, possibly in different states. A different purpose of photographic data may be to create a view of the facility or facility section allowing users of the service system to navigate the facility virtually, thereby locating different pieces of equipment in relation to the facility and other pieces of equipment, such photographic data may be referred to as panoramic data. In some cases, the format of the equipment photographs and the panoramic data may be the same. In some variants one or more equipment photographs may be a section of the panoramic data focused on a specific piece of equipment.

[0023] It is understood that photographic data in the category of equipment entries, i.e. equipment photographs, may be supplemental to the panoramic data of the service system even though there may be an overlap in the sense that the same equipment may be visible in both the photographic data and the panoramic data. The equipment photographs may be used to highlight the specific piece of equipment in relation to which an alert has been transmitted as will be discussed in more detail later.

[0024] By including equipment entries in the service system, this information is made available at multiple locations and thereby to more people. Typically, the majority of equipment entries, in particular the data related to the specific operation history and status of a piece of equipment is located at the facility, making it unavailable or at least incomplete for a maintenance specialist located remotely. By ensuring that the maintenance specialist has access to the equipment entries the maintenance specialist may make more prudent decisions when guiding on-board personnel carrying out maintenance at the facility or when the maintenance specialist is to make preparations for maintenance to be carried out at a predetermined time, e.g. when a maritime vessel is docked or when a maintenance specialist visits a factory.

[0025] It is to be understood that different types and / or amounts of equipment entries may be associated with each piece of facility equipment included in the maintenance system. Hence, a first piece of equipment may include numerous types of equipment entries, i.e. diagrams, maintenance guides, service reports, and collected measurements operation data, while a second piece of equipment may include different equipment entries such as a diagram and photographs. The amount of relevant equipment entries related to each piece of equipment will depend on the type and complexity of the data as well as operation history.

[0026] According to a further variant of the first aspect of the invention, the equipment entries comprise: system diagrams, maintenance guides, operation manuals, spare parts lists, service reports, maintenance reports, and / or photographs.

[0027] In a preferred variant, equipment entries includes at least equipment specifications and maintenance reports.

[0028] By facility data is understood data related to each individual facility. Facility data may include specifications related to the facility, i.e. its data of origin, personnel, and / or operation schedules. Preferably facility data includes the layout of the facility. Facility data may also relate to the equipment of the facility by relating to the location of the facility equipment at the facility, such as which section of the facility the facility equipment is located and the positioning of facility equipment relative to each other.

[0029] Facility data may include static data such as documents containing layout diagrams or reports. Equipment entries may include dynamic data reflecting the changing status of each particular facility. Such dynamic data may be associated with a specific facility section and may include measurements such as temperature or humidity measurements collected at the facility. By the division of a facility into facility sections is understood that equipment entries are assigned specific categories related to their physical location at a facility such that by associating a facility section with an area of a specific facility information relating the positioning of facility equipment assigned to a facility section is also assigned. Further, which on-board personnel has responsibility and knowledge of specific facility equipment may also be assigned to specific facility sections. Such division makes it easier to navigate the data of the relational database, as it simplifies communication between the on-board personnel and the maintenance specialist remotely located, as they may easily talk about and identify facility equipment based on knowledge of the specific facility, rather than based on, e.g. official names of each piece of equipment, thereby decreasing the risk of miscommunication.

[0030] As an example, a maritime vessel can be divided into an engine room, a bridge, and a cargo area. The relational database comprises information related to each of the sections including the layout and photographic views of these sections and simultaneously the relational database comprises equipment information related to pieces of facility equipment located at each of the facility sections. The engine room may for example contain a main engine, an auxiliary engine, a gear box and so forth, these pieces of facility equipment are associated with the facility section named the engine room.

[0031] It is to be understood that while at least one of the multiple facilities of the service system is to be divided into two or more facility sections, one or more of the multiple facilities may comprise only a single facility section. In the case of a facility, which has only a single facility section, the terms facility and facility section and data associated thereto will be used interchangeably.

[0032] Data may be added to the service system, e.g. when changes happen or to include addition relevant information over the lifetime of a facility.

[0033] By a relational database is understood a database having multiple entries, wherein these entries are related to each other. In the relational database of the service system, this may include relating facility data and equipment entries such as location of facility equipment in specific facility sections, whereby knowledge of condition in a facility section and the effects of these conditions may be linked with operation issues or wear of facility equipment located at that facility section, e.g. due to specific humidity, temperature, and / or vibrations at a specific section. Facility data and equipment entries may also be related, by being able to locate every piece of a specific type of equipment across a facility, i.e. determining in which facility sections a piece of equipment is located. Data related to the same type of facility equipment may also be associated across multiple facilities, e.g. all the same types of motor on multiple maritime vessels may be linked in the relational database such that issues recorded with respect to this particular type of facility equipment may be taken into account in maintenance at several of the multiple facilities managed by the service system. Data related to different types of facility equipment, e.g. an engine, are related to the specific facility, e.g. a maritime vessel, as one category of relations while simultaneously being related to specific facility sections, e.g. an engine room.

[0034] In a preferred variant of the service system the equipment entries comprise spare parts lists and the facility data comprise spare parts lists.

[0035] Data, such as spare parts lists, may also be associated both with a facility by including all spare parts available at the facility, while the spare parts lists are simultaneously kept for facility equipment containing information related to which spare parts may be used as well as their availability, whereby it is possible to keep track of and updating availability for each of the relevant pieces of equipment centrally for the entire facility.

[0036] By an alert transmitted from the facility management system is understood a data string related to a status of one or more pieces of equipment. Typically alerts will be related to issues needing the attention of on-board personnel. The alert may arise for various reasons, e.g. if a piece of equipment has stopped running as intended based on parameters set up for the facility management system. Alerts may for some variants be a number and / or a text string. An alert may contain some information directly understandable to the on-board personnel, but typically the alerts issued by the facility management systems will be insufficient for the on-board personnel to act on without consulting e.g. a manual. Preferably each alert data string is uniquely identifying a specific status and a specific piece of equipment, however, this may not be immediately decodable to the on-board personnel.

[0037] An example alert might be "Error #49: Sea water pump not starting", but for a facility comprising multiple water pumps it will be a prolonged process for the on-board personnel to identify the relevant water pump and issue based on the error message, as the on-board personnel would have to either manually consult a list of alert data strings for additional information or would have to physically inspect each water pump of the facility to identify where the alert originated from. For some facility management systems, the alerts may be even more terse, for example containing only the information “Error #726” making the required work to determine the relevant status even more extensive. As many facilities, such as ships and factories, are built for specific tasks, they are typically customised having different pieces of equipment installed at different times. Thus it is difficult to standardise alerts and messages further complicating the identification process for the on-board personnel.

[0038] By error code entries of the relational database may be understood information associating an alert issued from a facility management system at least to a specific piece of facility equipment. In other words, the error code entries link an alert to a specific piece of facility equipment. Hence, the error code allows the service system to identify the specific piece of facility equipment which the received alert relates to, such that a user of the service system may immediately identify which piece of facility equipment is in need of attention.

[0039] In a preferred variant, the error code entries further comprise additional alert details such as an elaborated description of the alert, thus making it more efficient for the user to access this information as it may be presented in the same system.

[0040] In some preferred variants, the error code entries may also include updated information regarding when this error code was last looked up for the specific facility.

[0041] By an alert identifying an error code entry is understood that the alert data string is linked to a specific error code entry, e.g. the number of the alert may have the same identifying number in the error code entry thereby allowing the identification of the relevant error code entry based on the received alert.

[0042] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the panoramic data is configured to be displayed as a virtual facility environment through which a user may manipulate the position from which the panoramic data is viewed. By a virtual facility environment is understood a virtual representation of a facility section including a visual representation of at least a subsection of the facility data associated with that facility environment to be visually displayed. By photographic data to be included in the virtual facility environment is understood photographs taken of the facility section. The photographic data of the facility section may be combined to create at least part of the virtual facility environment. In a preferred variant, multiple photographs are joined to create a single spherical panorama photograph allowing the viewer to turn the view whereby a better overview of the facility section and the placement of facility equipment relative to each other is achieved.

[0043] The virtual facility environment may thus be understood as panoramic data presented to a user of the service system in a manner such that one or more facility sections may be viewed virtually through combined panoramic data. Preferably the user may navigate the panoramic data to orient themselves within the virtual space of the facility section. By navigating the panoramic data or the virtual facility environment is understood that it may be possible to change the view, preferably in a smooth / continuous manner, emulating turning or moving through the facility section. This allows the user to assess the layout of the facility sections as well as the positions of facility equipment within the facility section and relative to other facility equipment.

[0044] By a three-dimensional model is understood a virtual representation of at least some of the structures present at the facility section. This three-dimensional model may be simplistic outlines of the area of the facility section and the facility equipment located therein. By the three-dimensional model being overlaid with the photographic data is understood that when the virtual facility environment is being displayed, the viewer will see the photographic data while the underlying three-dimensional mode handles occlusions. Furthermore, the three-dimensional model allows connection of the photographic data to other related information within the relational databank, by enabling selection of parts of the virtual facility environment. In a preferred variant at least the facility equipment of the service system associated with the displayed facility section may be selected to access other equipment entries related to the selected piece of facility equipment. It is understood that it is not necessary that each item visible in the photograph is also represented in the three-dimensional model. In particular, not every item has to be accessible, e.g. devices or equipment not included in the service system need not be accessible or present in the three-dimensional model. In some variants, equipment having no associated equipment entries may still be selectable but will provide the user only with the information that there are no associated entries. In some variants, areas of the virtual environment not associated with facility equipment, may be selected to access database entries related to facility data associated with the displayed facility section. In some variants, selecting specific areas of the virtual environment may lead to the display of the virtual environment of another facility section, e.g. the selection of a door may change the display to that of the facility section neighbouring the presently displayed facility section at the facility.

[0045] For example, a view of the engine room of a maritime vessel may be shown. The displayed view is a photographic image of the engine room of a particular ship data related to which is stored in the service system. In the photograph a main engine and two switchboards are in view all of which have associated equipment entries. The photographic image has an underlying three-dimensional model and when the user selects a piece of facility equipment, e.g. by clicking one of the switchboards, the user is presented with equipment entries related to the selected facility equipment. In some variants there may be default choices of which equipment entries are displayed, and in other variants the user will be presented with a list of available equipment entries when selecting a piece of facility equipment in the virtual environment.

[0046] In a preferred variant each facility section of a facility has an associated virtual facility environment. In a more preferred variant, each facility section of each of the multiple facilities has an associated virtual facility environment.

[0047] Presenting a virtual environment of the facility allows the maintenance specialist to orient himself as if present at the facility even though he is located remotely. Granting the maintenance specialist a photographic view of the facility gives him direct knowledge of the specific circumstance of the facility equipment in need of maintenance. Furthermore, knowledge of the placement and location of the equipment minimises the risk of miscommunication between the on-board personnel at the facility and the maintenance specialist being remotely located e.g., when the facility comprises multiple of the same type of equipment such as switch boards.

[0048] By presenting a virtual environment from which facility equipment may be selected and equipment entries may be selected the user is presented with multiple types of information simultaneously, including information of the type of facility equipment present at the facility, layout of the facility and the location of the facility equipment within the facility. It may be more intuitive to the user to identify the facility equipment from the photograph that from a list of written identifiers such as part names or serial numbers, and more information may be displayed simultaneously without having to scroll through text-based lists.

[0049] In other variants, the panoramic image and virtual tour may be presented independently of equipment data presented in a separate view, e.g. as lists, tables, or overview widgets.

[0050] In an alternative but also preferred embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the photographic data is displayed along with three-dimensional models, said three- dimensional models being solely for occlusion.

[0051] A benefit of presenting the photographic data without a three-dimensional model is the decrease of required data storage and processing power. Specialists may access dimensional data via other means, e.g. loading a point cloud into a 3d-modelling environment, but may be in need of immediately orienting themselves with respect to the facility in need of assistance without needing to make any adjustments in the virtual environment. Hence, for some preferred variants the virtual environment may be comprised of only the photographic data providing a panoramic view through which the user, either the on-board personnel or the remote maintenance specialist, may navigate. In some alternative variants 3D-models may be overlaid only for occlusion purposes making navigation of the photographic data easier and less prone to misunderstanding.

[0052] In some variants the virtual tour is made solely from photographic data, preferably being panoramic data.

[0053] Further, the maintenance specialist is given simultaneous virtual access to multiple facilities, this in turn enables comparison of the various facilities to determine if the same maintenance strategies, including replacement strategies, may be used at various facilities. For example, a solution that has been employed at one facility in the past may be a good starting point for solving a similar problem at another facility, but differences in conditions or the physical placement of the facility equipment at the two facilities may lead to the need for modification of the maintenance strategy before it can be employed at the second facility. The services system allows the maintenance specialist to determine if such variations are necessary and to plan any changes remotely from both facilities in question.

[0054] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the service system comprises a specialist interface configured to be located remotely from each of the one or more facilities, the specialist interface being in communication with the server and the specialist interface being configured to display data retrieved from the relational database.

[0055] By a specialist interface is understood a device having at least processing unit allowing access to the service system and a display for presenting the maintenance specialist with facility data and equipment entries. The service device is located remotely from the multiple facilities by which is understood that it is not at the facilities but located e.g. at a central office. It will be understood to a person skilled in the art that a specialist interface may be a mobile device, such as a laptop in which case it may intermittently be present at one of the facilities managed by the service system, e.g. if a maintenance specialist visits that facility and brings the specialist interface with him, in which case the specialist interface will still be remote from the other of the multiple facilities. By the specialist interface being in communication with the server is understood that it is configured to retrieve information from said server by accessing data from said relational database.

[0056] In a preferred variant the specialist interface is configured to allow the maintenance specialist to add equipment entries, such as service reports, fault notes, and / or maintenance instructions.

[0057] The service system has multiple benefits some of which are mentioned here. By providing the maintenance specialist with information of a facility remotely from that facility, the maintenance specialist can make informed decisions to guide or prepare maintenance faster than if he would have to wait until he could access the facility and with a higher quality than if he had to make the decision remotely without the service system. Furthermore, by collecting information from multiple facilities, knowledge regarding specific types of equipment at one facility may be used to improve the maintenance at other facilities. Furthermore, having information available remotely form the facility allows the maintenance specialist to make preparations such as the design and production of replacement parts which are to be installed when the vessel is docked. This allows the time during which a ship must be docked or a production line at a factory must be paused to be significantly reduced as only the time where it is strictly necessary for the maintenance procedure to be carried out must take place with access to the machinery which is serviced.

[0058] By providing information regarding the positioning of pieces of equipment relative to each other as well as the physical restrictions of the facility based on the layout of facility sections, the maintenance specialist is given the necessary overview for understanding what options are available to the on-board personnel for interacting with the machinery.

[0059] According to a further variant of the first aspect of the invention, one or more of the multiple facilities are maritime vessels. In a preferred variant the maritime vessels are ships, more preferably fishing sips.

[0060] The service system is in particular beneficial for maritime vessels that spend the majority of their time away from shore as they are rarely accessible to maintenance specialists. Furthermore, maritime vessels may be far from shore and therefore have limited and intermittent access to the internet and / or other communication with land where maintenance specialists are located. Therefore, it is essential that the maintenance specialist may access information related to the maritime vessel and the facility equipment on the maritime vessel in need of maintenance also when they cannot be in continuous communication.

[0061] According to a further variant of the first aspect of the invention, one or more of the multiple facilities are fish processing factories.

[0062] While communication links may be more stable for factories, the benefits of having information regarding the facility equipment and the facility sections still allows the maintenance specialist to guide on-board personnel to carry out minor maintenance or for the maintenance specialist to plan out maintenance before travelling to the factory.

[0063] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the facility data comprises a facility point cloud arranged as a point cloud view of a facility section, the point cloud comprising a plurality of datapoints providing the spatial relation between facility equipment and the dimensions of the facility section in which said facility equipment is located whereby measurements may be carried out virtually. According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the facility data comprises a facility point cloud arranged as a point cloud view of a facility section, the facility point cloud comprising a plurality of datapoints providing the spatial relation between facility equipment and the dimensions of the facility section in which the facility equipment is located whereby measurements of a physical distance, area or volume represented by the facility point cloud may be carried out virtually.

[0064] By a point cloud is understood a plurality of datapoints each of which is associated with the position of a surface of a facility section, e.g. the surface of a piece of facility equipment or the surface of part of the structure of the facility such as the floor or a wall or it may be points associated with fixings such as cables or rails. The point cloud may be captured using a laser scanner, registering the physical position of a plurality of points. In a preferred variant the point cloud comprises at least one million points. In a more preferred variant, the point cloud data is collected with a density of 10-15 million points per scan for a volume corresponding to a sphere with a radius of 10 m at the facility.

[0065] The point cloud view appears similar to a virtual environment being based on the measured datapoints rather than photographic data. As the environment is digital based on the collected datapoints this allows the user to manipulate and change the angle of viewing the surfaces to better understand the spatial relation between facility equipment and the layout of the facility section. The user may interact with the datapoints of the point cloud, in particular to determine the distance between two datapoints of the point cloud, this distance being directly correlated with the physical distance between the surfaces for which those datapoints are collected. Thusly determining the distance based on the point cloud view is considered a simulated measurement. The point cloud view thereby enables the maintenance specialist to make measurements to prepare maintenance actions. Being able to measure for example hole openings in the facility allows the maintenance specialist to confirm that equipment or tools will fit through the opening which is crucial when carrying out overhauls or maintenance work.

[0066] The maintenance specialist may also interact with the datapoints of the point cloud to making digital modifications which may be stored separately to compare to the measured datapoints. For larger maintenance tasks, where equipment is being replaced, the point cloud environment allows the maintenance specialist to pre-design and simulate the changes to the facility. Being able to carry out this design work offline enables prefabrication of spare parts that need to be specially made for the facility prior to the disruption of operation due to maintenance e.g., before a maritime vessel arriving to dock. This saves precious time and money as it minimises the off-line time for the facility.

[0067] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the service system comprising an on-board device located on each of the multiple facilities, said on-board device configured to communicate with the server.

[0068] In a preferred variant the on-board device is in communication with the server.

[0069] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the service system comprises one or more on-board devices configured to be located at the one or more facilities, the on-board devices being configured to communicate with the server and the on-board device being configured to access and display data from the relational database.

[0070] For preferred variants each facility assisted by the service system has at least one onboard device. Multiple on-board devices may be located at the same facility.

[0071] By an on-board device is understood an electronic device located at a facility and configured to interact with the service system. The on-board device comprises a processing unit, a display, and an interface for the on-board personnel to interact with the service system. The on-board device is configured to be in communication with the service system although as mentioned for some facilities the communication link may only be intermittently available. If communication is temporarily unavailable, the maintenance specialist may upload maintenance instruction that may be accessed by the on-board personnel later, when communication to the server is reestablished.

[0072] The on-board device may afford the on-board personnel access to the same information as the maintenance specialist, thereby making communication between the maintenance specialist and the facility easier and minimising the risk of miscommunication as everyone has the same frame of reference. The on-board device may be a computer, a tablet or similar off-the-shelf device. In some variants the on-board device may be specially modified for the collection and / or transmittal of information to the service system. For example, the on-board device may comprise detectors or sensors for collecting information.

[0073] The on-board device may be adapted for interfacing with one or more of the pieces of facility equipment to collect and upload information for the service system.

[0074] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the error code entries are associated with the panoramic data such that facility equipment associated with an error code entry may be visually highlighted.

[0075] In other words, the service system may be configured to display panoramic data visually highlighting facility equipment in relation to which an alert has been received.

[0076] The visual highlighting of facility equipment associated with the error code may be done in multiple different ways. For one preferred variant the visual highlighting may be done by presenting the user with a view of the panoramic data approximately centred on the facility equipment being highlighted. In other words, the user may in the virtual space be positioned directly in front of the highlighted facility equipment. Alternatively, or in addition, facility equipment may be visually highlighted by a circle appearing over the panoramic data encircling at least the majority of the facility equipment which the error code entry is associated with. In yet other exemplary alternatives or additions visual highlighting may be done by a transparent overlay of a coloured area over at least the majority of the facility equipment which the error code entry is associated with.

[0077] Regardless of how the visual highlighting is implemented it simplifies the task of the user to identify the facility equipment which needs attention. Thus, the alerted situation may be attended to faster than if the user would need to look up a model number or name of a piece of facility equipment or physically inspect multiple pieces of facility equipment to identify the relevant one.

[0078] The visual highlighting may be accessible to both on-board personnel who may then assess the situation immediately as well as to external maintenance specialists who access the service system remotely to guide on-board personnel in maintenance. According to another variant of the first aspect of the invention, the error code entries are associated with the equipment photographs such that the piece of equipment associated with an error code may be visually highlighted by displaying an associated equipment photograph.

[0079] By highlighting the error code with a separate equipment photograph, the visual identification of the facility equipment related to the alert may be maintained while a user navigate through the virtual environment of the panoramic data. In some preferred variants the equipment photograph linked with the error code entry may match a view of the panoramic data thereby simplifying the comparison of the equipment photograph and the panoramic data when the user is identifying the relevant facility equipment to perform service and / or maintenance.

[0080] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, at least one piece of facility equipment is supplied with an associated identification tag being configured to be activated by the on-board device service system is configured to automatically display, on a first specialist interface, database entries related to the piece of facility equipment of which the identification tag has been activated.

[0081] In a preferred variant each piece of facility equipment associated with the service system is equipped with an identification tag.

[0082] The identification tag may be a near field communication (NFC) chip, a QR code, or an RFID tags. The identification tag is individual to each piece of facility equipment, such that the facility equipment may be uniquely identified. The identification tags link the physical facility equipment to the digital entry of that facility equipment within the service system.

[0083] That the identification tag may be activated by the on-board device is understood the on-board device is adapted to recognize the identification tag to access the linked equipment entries within the service system. The identification tag may be static, such as is the case for a QR code, and activation may in this case be understood as the onboard device scanning the identification tag by an action of the on-board personnel operating the on-board device. In some variants the identification tag is an active identification tag. By the identification tag being active is understood that it may detect the presence of an onboard device, optionally only when the on-board device is searching for nearby facility equipment. This means that the on-bard personnel do not need to determine where the identification tag is to activate it.

[0084] The use of identification tags makes it more efficient to access the relevant equipment entries compared to searching for them in a list or folder structure of the database of the service system. Furthermore, the identification tags and the configuration of the service system to access equipment entries upon activation of an identification tag on the specialist interface minimises or even eliminates the risk of miscommunication regarding which piece of facility equipment is relevant for the maintenance operations. This may in particular be relevant if a facility is equipped with multiple pieces of equipment of the same type e.g., multiple switch boards, but which has different data entries e.g., due to different wear, previous maintenance operations or different versions or models of the equipment type.

[0085] According to a further variant of the first aspect of the invention, the identification tags are configured such that activation of an identification tag presents the virtual environment view of the facility section in which the facility equipment associated with the identification tag is located. In a more preferable variant, the facility equipment associated with the activated identification tag will be highlighted in the displayed virtual environment.

[0086] According to a further variant of the first aspect of the invention, the on-board device is configured to transmit data to the server, such as sensor data, photographic data, and / or textual data.

[0087] According to a further embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the on-board device comprises communication headwear, the communication headwear facilitating visual communication and audio communication with the specialist interface.

[0088] In a preferred variant the communication headwear comprises a cap or hardhat, a pair of goggles, a camera, a monitor, speakers and / or a headphone connector, and a microphone. Communication between the maintenance specialist and the on-board personnel via the service system may be established through the on-board device. As the communication headwear may be worn by the on-board specialist and is arranged at eye level it is ensured that video communication sent form the on-board personnel to the maintenance specialist provides a view of the relevant facility equipment from a useful perspective as the view is shared between the on-board personnel and the maintenance specialist. The maintenance specialists will get a live video and audio stream from the communication hardware almost as if they were accompanying the on-board personnel. This enables the maintenance specialists to help with debugging and problem solving remotely from the facility.

[0089] A benefit of having the on-board device comprising visual communication such as a video feed is that it is possible for a remote maintenance specialist to have concurrent views of the panoramic data and / or photographic data of the relational database while simultaneously having images of the present situation, thereby allowing direct visual confirmation of any visible changes to the facility equipment in need of service.

[0090] According to a further variant of the first aspect of the invention, the service system comprises a network connected storage device located at a facility for continuously collecting data rom said facility to be transmitted to said server when connection is available.

[0091] Measurements and other status information related to a facility section and / or to facility equipment may be carried out continuously at the multiple facilities. However, network connection to the server may be intermittent. Hence, a storage device may be arranged at one or more of the multiple facilities of the service system. The storage device is configured to collect the data of the facility where the storage device is collected, such that data is not lost if transmission to the server is unavailable. Transmission of the data to the server may thus be routed via the network connected storage device. The storage device may be configured to transmit data whenever it has connection to the server, or it may be configured to transmit data at certain intervals or when connection to the server is present and a certain amount of data has been collected since last transmission.

[0092] Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for remotely assisting maintenance operations. According to a second aspect of the present invention, the above objects and advantages are obtained by:

[0093] A method of assisting maintenance operations at one or more facilities, the method comprising the steps of: providing a service system according to the first aspect of the invention; receiving an alert from a facility management system; identifying an error code entry of the relational database related to the alert and identifying the facility equipment associated with the error code entry, thereby directly identifying the specific facility equipment subject to an alert and the location of said facility equipment.

[0094] It will be understood by the person skilled in the art that identification in the context of the method may be automated e.g. that a program of the service system may perform a string comparison between the received alert sting and the relevant data entries of the error code entries. The linkage between the error code entries and the facility equipment may thereupon facilitate the identification of the facility equipment.

[0095] According to a further embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, the provided service system comprises an on-board device and the method further comprises the step of displaying panoramic data of the facility section comprising the facility equipment associated with the error code entry and highlighting the associated facility equipment in the display.

[0096] By the displayed panoramic data of the facility section comprising the facility equipment associated with the error code is to be understood that the particular view of the panoramic data presented on the display shows the associated facility equipment in the presented view. This view may subsequently be changed by the user.

[0097] In some preferred variants where highlighting is performed by the addition of a visual structure, e.g. a ring, an outline, or a transparent overlay, the highlight may remain while the user navigates the virtual space such that the panoramic data may be changed to show part of the facility section away from the facility equipment associated with the alert and the facility equipment remains highlighted when the view is changed back to include the facility equipment associated with the alert. In some preferred variants the highlight may remain until it is removed by a user and / or it may be a toggleable highlight.

[0098] According to a further embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, wherein the provided service system comprises a specialist interface and wherein the method further comprises the steps of: transmitting a service request related to a first facility to the specialist interface of the service system; accessing facility data and / or equipment entries from the relational database via the specialist interface of the service system; analysing the service request and facility data and / or equipment entries related to the facility equipment in need of maintenance to determine maintenance operations to be carried out at the first facility, the analysis of the facility data and / or equipment entries taking place remotely from the first facility.

[0099] Analysing the service request and facility data and / or equipment entries to determine maintenance operations to be achieved may include looking up manuals and service reports to evaluate the status of the facility equipment in need of maintenance as well as assessing the intended operational behaviour of that piece of equipment to assess deviation from the intended operational behaviour. Further manuals and service reports may suggest various maintenance operations which may be carried out to prolong, improve or reestablish intended operation of the facility equipment.

[0100] In some situations, the remote maintenance specialist may provide instructions to the on-board personnel and monitor what changes occur as the instructions are carried out, thereby making the maintenance an iterative process. In other cases, the maintenance specialist may determine that maintenance needs to be carried out at a later time once a maintenance specialist and / or additional components can be acquired.

[0101] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the above objects and advantages are obtained by:

[0102] A method of remotely assisting maintenance operations at multiple facilities comprising the steps of: providing a service system according to the first aspect of the invention; transmit a service request related to a first facility to said specialist interface; accessing facility data and / or equipment entries from said relational database via said specialist interface; determining maintenance operations to be carried out at said first facility, the determining of those maintenance operations taking place remotely from said first facility.

[0103] By a service request is understood the indication of the need for maintenance of a piece of facility equipment. A service request may be sent by on-board personnel at a facility. A service request may be automatically issued by a piece of facility equipment e.g., due to a detected malfunction or a measurement exceeding a predetermined limit such as too high an operation temperature. Service requests may be issued internally by the service system based on predetermined time limits such as operation time or time since installation of a specific piece of facility equipment or based on timers set by maintenance specialist after previous maintenance operations. It will be understood by the person skilled in the art that a service request may be issued within the service system, or it may be external to the service system, and optionally recorded in the service system subsequently. A service request may for example be issued by a phone call or an email from on-board personnel to a maintenance specialist or the maintenance service provider.

[0104] By a maintenance operation is understood actions need to be taken to resolve or preempt an issue with a piece of facility equipment. Maintenance operations may thus include, but are not limited to, replacing parts or full pieces of facility equipment, removal of obstructions, repairing lost connections, or performing software updates. Maintenance operations may also include extensive preparation such as the simulation, design and production of a spare part or a replacement part. In some variants maintenance operations may also include the planning of a maintenance schedule including either when maintenance is to take place or which maintenance is to be carried out during the next scheduled maintenance downtime of a specific facility. Hence, it will be understood to the person skilled in the art that while at least the determination of maintenance operations to be carried out at the first facility takes place remotely from that first facility, at least part of said maintenance operation may also take place remotely from said first facility e.g., the design and production of the replacement part. Accessing facility and / or equipment entries is carried out by the maintenance specialist via the specialist interface. Accessing may be active by the maintenance specialist, or it may be automatically facilitated by activation of an identification tag as previously described. In a preferred variant both facility data and equipment entries are accessed for the planning of a maintenance operation.

[0105] Accessing of the facility data and / or the equipment entries will assist the maintenance specialist in the planning of the best maintenance operations to take and how these are to be carried out.

[0106] According to a further variant of the second aspect of the invention, at least a preparatory maintenance operation is carried out remotely from the first facility.

[0107] According to a further variant of the second aspect of the invention, at least a preparatory maintenance operation is carried out remotely from said first facility and a finalizing maintenance operation is carried locally at the first facility.

[0108] According to a further embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, comprising pre-designing changes remotely from said first facility and subsequently carrying out maintenance operations incorporating said pre-designed changes.

[0109] Pre-designing changes remotely from the first facility is to be understood as a specific form of preparatory maintenance operation.

[0110] According to a further embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, equipment entries are accessed by selecting a visual representation of the associated facility equipment in a virtual environment of said service system.

[0111] According to a further embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, the method comprises making a simulated measurement of a physical distance, area, or volume represented by a point cloud of a facility section and pre-designing changes or simulating changes to be made to said first facility based on said simulated measurements. By a simulated measurement is understood a measurement carried out in the virtual environment of the point cloud view presented on the specialist interface. The measurement between two or more points of the point cloud is correlated with the distance of the facility where the measurements for the point cloud were carried out. Hence, the measurement carried out in the virtual environment of the point cloud is a simulation of measurements carried out in the physical space of the facility section.

[0112] Pre-designing changes may include, but is not limited to, designing replacement parts.

[0113] Simulating changes may further include simulating how to move facility equipment or other furnishings at a facility section to allow replacements to be moved into place at the facility. This may include the order in which facility equipment is to be moved to ensure that the maintenance operations can be carried out efficiently.

[0114] According to a further embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, the relational database of the service system cross-linking entries related to same types of facility equipment between the multiple facilities of said service system.

[0115] According to a further embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, further including the step of consulting facility data related to a second facility comprising facility equipment of the same type as the facility equipment to which the error code entry is related.

[0116] Consulting facility data related to a separate facility may be beneficial as it allows knowledge and experience from similar situations to help inform decisions made in relation to facility equipment in need of maintenance at a first facility.

[0117] According to a further variant of the second aspect of the invention, providing an onboard device at each of said multiple facilities.

[0118] According to a further variant of the second aspect of the invention, transmitting instructions relating to the maintenance operations to the on-board device.

[0119] The transmittal of instruction may be by audio files for example during direct communication. Instructions may be transmitted by the uploading of a document including maintenance instructions. According to a further variant of the second aspect of the invention, automatically displaying one or more equipment entries at the specialist interface upon detected proximity of an on-board device to a piece of equipment, preferably using an identification tag.

[0120] According to a further variant of the second aspect of the invention, displaying one or more equipment entries at the specialist interface upon choosing those entries on the on-board device.

[0121] The service system may allow the on-board personnel to open files on the display of the specialist interface e.g., by selection of an equipment entry on the on-board device. By allowing the on-board personnel such control of the choice of equipment entries the on-board personnel may be sure that the maintenance specialist is devising maintenance operations for the intended piece of facility equipment and based on related data.

[0122] According to a further variant of the second aspect of the invention, providing communication headwear being part of the on-board device and establishing communication between the on-board device and the specialist interface via the communication headwear, the facilitated communication thereby comprising transmission of video data and audio data.

[0123] SHORT LIST OF THE DRAWINGS

[0124] In the following, examples of embodiments are described according to the invention, where: Fig. 1 illustrates an overview of a service system.

[0125] Fig. 2 illustrates the concept of the relational database associating facility data and equipment entries.

[0126] Fig. 3 shows an example illustration of a virtual facility environment.

[0127] Fig. 4 shows an example of a point cloud view of a facility section.

[0128] Fig. 5 shows an example of communication headwear.

[0129] Fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of the method of remotely assisting maintenance operations.

[0130] Fig. 7 shows a flow diagram of an embodiment of the method of assisting maintenance operations after a facility system alert has been transmitted.

[0131] Fig. 8 illustrates an example of how a piece of facility equipment may be visually highlighted in response to a facility system alert having been issued.

[0132] Fig. 9 shows an example illustration of a relational database for a single facility.

[0133] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0134] The invention will now be explained in more detail below by means of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0135] The invention may, however, be embodied in different forms than depicted below, and should not be construed as limited to any examples set forth herein. Rather, any examples are provided so that the disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. Like elements will, thus, not be described in detail with respect to the description of each figure.

[0136] Fig. 1 illustrates a conceptual overview of a service system 1. The service system 1 comprises a server 30 storing a relational database (see Fig. 2) comprising entries related to the multiple facilities 100. The facilities may be of various different types including maritime vessels 101 , preferably fishing ships, and factories 102, preferably fish processing factories. It is to be understood that any number of facilities may be part of the service system 1. At each of the facilities 100 there will be on-board personnel 120, such as engineers handling the day-to-day operation of facility equipment at the facility.

[0137] Each of the multiple facilities 100 is equipped with facility equipment 110, having associated equipment entries stored in the relational database on the server 30. Facility equipment 110 may take many different forms depending on the type of facility 100, a few examples of facility equipment 110 is engines, pumps, communication systems, sensors, and assembly lines. Each of the multiple facilities 100 comprise one or more facility sections 105 which are divisions of the facility into locations related to different functionality and facility equipment 110 is associated with a facility section 105 within the relational database of the server 30. As illustrated in Fig. 1 an example of a facility section 105 may be the deck of a maritime vessel and examples of facility equipment 110 associated with that facility section 105 may be cranes, search lights, wind speed sensors and motorized hatch. While not shown in Fig. 1 it will be understood to the person skilled in the art that the interior of the multiple facilities 101 may be similarly divided into multiple sections of which examples for a maritime vessel could be an engine room, a processing area, and a hold.

[0138] For some preferred embodiments of the service system 1 , the facilities 100 will be equipped with an on-board device 121. The on-board device may be a computer, a tablet, a smartphone, or a similar standard processing device being configured to be part of the service system 1 being in communication with the server 30. In other preferred embodiments the on-board device 121 may be specialised equipment such as communication headwear (see Fig. 5) optionally operatable with a standard processing device. The on-board device 121 may be equipped with detectors or sensors for collection of data at the facility. It is preferrable that each of the multiple facilities 100 is equipped with at least one on-board device 121.

[0139] A maintenance specialist 150 is located remotely from the multiple facilities 100 of the maintenance system. By a maintenance specialist 150 is understood a person or a team of people being trained experts having specialist knowledge of the various types of facility equipment managed by the service system and being tasked with determining maintenance operations to be carried out to enable the intended operation of the facilities and facility equipment. Hence, the term maintenance specialist 150 may refer to a company providing the service of assisting and / or carrying out maintenance at the facilities. The maintenance specialist 150 is equipped with a specialist interface 151 being in communication with the server 30 such that data of the relational database may be accessed by the maintenance specialist 150.

[0140] In preferred embodiments of the invention communication between the maintenance specialist 150 and the on-board personnel 120 is facilitated via the server 30, such that communication may take place directly within the framework of the service system 1. However, it is to be understood that in other embodiments the service system may function separately through different channels such as a phone line.

[0141] Fig. 2 illustrates the concept of the relational database 200 associating facility data 220 and equipment entries 240. It is to be understood that the data may be linked in additional or different ways for different embodiments of the service system, the figure is a simple sketch of the overall concept.

[0142] The relational database 200 is shown as the outermost dotted outline, the relational database comprising all of the facility data 220 and equipment entries 240 related to the multiple facilities 100 managed by the service system. Each of the multiple facilities 100’, 100”, 100”’ are in the relational database 200 of Fig. 2 illustrated as a solid outline. Data entries of the database may thus be organised as associated with each of the multiple facilities 100’, 100”, 100’”. Various types of facility data may be comprised in the relational database 200 related to each of the multiple facilities 100’, 100”, 100’”, facility data is in Fig. 2 illustrated as solid squares. Various types of equipment entries 240 associated with the facility equipment of each facility may be stored in the relational database 200, equipment entries are in Fig. 2 shown as solid circles.

[0143] Both facility data 220 and equipment entries may be associated with multiple facility sections 105, 105’, 105”, 105’” related to specific areas of the facility 100. Facility sections are in Fig. 2 illustrated as dashed lines. Further facility data 220 may be related to the entirety of the facility independently of facility sections 105 e.g., address, blueprints, date of initiation of operation, staff lists, and / or travel schedule and routes for vessels. Facility data 220 may include virtual facility environments 230 comprising photographic data 231 and three-dimensional models 233 of at least one and preferably all of the facility sections 105. Facility data may further comprise a facility point cloud 235. Other types of facility data may include measurements of section conditions collected at a facility section.

[0144] In a preferred embodiment all equipment entries 240 will be associated with a facility section 105 relating to the physical location of the facility equipment which the equipment entry 240 is associated with. Equipment entries 240 may include origin documents 241 such as specifications, diagrams, and / or operation manuals. Equipment entries 240 may include update documents 243 such as service reports, operation history and / or maintenance guides. Equipment entries 240 may include equipment photographs 245 and / or measurement data 247. Equipment entries 240 may further include operation status bars 249 indicating estimated time to next maintenance and / or a performance indicator, such operation status bars 249 may be used to assist predictive maintenance and the timing of future maintenance operations.

[0145] Spare parts lists 250 may be included as specific equipment entries 240 and / or associated with the entire facility 100.

[0146] In the illustrated exemplary embodiment of Fig. 2, the relational database 200 comprises data related to a first facility 100’, a second facility 100”, and a third facility 100”’. Each of the facilities 100’, 100”, 100’”, are divided into a plurality of facility sections 105 having associated facility data 220 and associated equipment entries 230. The first facility 100’ and the second facility 100” further comprises facility data 220 associated with the facility 100’, 100” without being associated with a specific facility section 105.

[0147] The data illustrated for the first facility 100’ shows how multiple equipment entries 240 may be associated with different pieces of facility equipment. Each circle illustrates an equipment entry 240 and the letter within the circle indicates the piece of facility equipment which the equipment entry is associated with. Uppercase and lowercase letters indicate that the equipment entries 240 relate to the same type of equipment but separate pieces. As an example, equipment entries marked with A are all related to the same piece of equipment, while equipment entries 240 marked with a, and a are associated to the same type of equipment installed separately at the first facility 100’, e.g. all these pieces of facility equipment may be switchboards connected to control the electrical power distribution of different facility sections 105 or different equipment of a facility section. As is shown in Fig. 2 multiple of the same type of equipment may be arranged in the same facility section 105 or they may be in various facility sections 105 of the same facility 100. In a preferred variant alle pieces of facility equipment of the same type are linked within the relational database 200 whereby information related to one piece of equipment is easily retrieved when determining maintenance operations required for another such piece of equipment. In a more preferred variant, all pieces of facility equipment of the same type within the relational database 200 are linked also across the multiple facilities 100.

[0148] The facility sections 105 of the first facility 100’ further comprises facility data 220 that may be of various types. While the facility data 220 is specifically associated with the facility itself, some types of facility data 220 such as facility measurements 222 may be linked within the relational database 200. For example, facility measurements 222 related to temperature and humidity may be collected at each facility section and be compared to determine variations across the facility. Some types of facility data 220, such as floor plans or virtual facility environments 230 may be linked for different facilities of the same type, such as maritime vessels of the same model.

[0149] Spare parts lists 250 may be categorised both as facility data 220 related to the entire facility 100 and as equipment entries 240 associated with a piece of facility equipment.

[0150] In Fig. 2 the second facility 100” is used to illustrate various types of data that may be present within the relational database 200. The illustrated data entries are the same for the first facility section 105’ and the second facility section 105”. The data types are illustrated with reference numbers in the first facility section 105’ and with icons for the second facility section 105”.

[0151] At least one, and preferably each, of the facility sections 105’, 105”, 105’” comprise a virtual facility environment 230. The virtual facility environment comprises photographic data 231 and a three-dimensional model 233. Other types of facility data 220 may include facility measurements 222 and facility point clouds 235. The equipment entries 240 may comprise origin documents 241 and / or update documents 243. Equipment entries 240 may further comprise equipment photographs 245 and / or measurement data 247. Equipment entries may further comprise operation status bars for the associated facility equipment. It is understood that various types of equipment entries 240 may be present for each piece of facility equipment regardless of whether they are of the same or different type as the equipment entries 240 will dependent on the history of the facility equipment and the diligence manual of data entries.

[0152] The third facility 100”’ of the relational database 200 illustrated in Fig. 2 shows that the number of facility sections 105 may vary, as may the type as illustrated by their various areas. The third facility 100”’ shows an example of a facility having no facility data which is not related to a facility section 105.

[0153] It will be understood to a person skilled in the art that Fig. 2 simply visualizes the concept of a database structure and that different number of facilities, types of equipment, datasets and entries, and links of the data are within the scope of the present invention.

[0154] The facility data may for preferred embodiments further include error code entries 270 (see Fig. 9 illustrating a relational database of a single facility). The error code entries 270 are preferably present for all sections 105’, 105”, 105’” of the specific facility or preferably at least for each section comprising facility equipment. Error code entries 270 may be applicable to only a single specific facility 100’.100”. 100’” due to the customisation and variation between each facility linked to a service system and to the equipment installed at the facilities. The alert system of each facility may thus be unique or have only unintentional overlap, e.g. the same alert string referring to different types of facility equipment. In other equally preferred variants two or more facilities may share a standardised alert string set and therefore may also share a set of error code entries.

[0155] Fig. 9 shows an example illustration of a relational database for a single facility, as the service system may provide several benefits even when not linking multiple facilities in the same system. In Fig. 9 the error code entries 270, being a type of equipment entries 240 have been shown explicitly. Otherwise, Fig. 9 is identical to the top part Fig. 2, showing the relation between facility section 105’, 105”, 105”’ of a specific facility 100’. The relational database 200 comprises both facility data 220, equipment entries 240 and spare parts lists 250.

[0156] Fig. 3 shows an example illustration of a view of a virtual facility environment 230. The facility environment 230 comprises photographic data 231 showing a facility section. In a preferred variant the photographic data 231 comprises multiple photographs joined to create a spherical panorama photograph. The photographic data 231 shown in Fig. 3 is a single view as may be presented to a user of the service system such as a maintenance specialist.

[0157] The virtual facility environment 230 may be presented to a user e.g. to a maintenance specialist on a specialist interface with a navigation bar 238 allowing the user to change the view. By a change of the view is understood that the position or angle from which the facility section is shown is altered. Hence, the virtual facility environment provides an option for a user to virtually move around the facility section. In other word the maintenance specialist being located remotely may virtually tour the facility section using the virtual facility environment 230.

[0158] The virtual facility environment 230 is created by a combination of the photographic data and a three-dimensional model 233. In Fig. 3 the three-dimensional model 233 is illustrated with solid black lines. However, it is to be understood that this is for illustrative purposes and that the view of the service system, which a user will be presented with, will include the three-dimensional model 233 much more subtly such that it may even be unnoticeable in appearance to the user. The three-dimensional model 233 is used for occlusion purposes allowing the various facility equipment 110 to be seen from various angles and be selectable even if partially hidden from view in the photographic data 231.

[0159] Facility equipment 110 may be selected within the virtual facility environment 230 to access equipment entries related to that piece of equipment. Selection of a piece of facility equipment 110 is illustrated by the cursor 155. Hence, the user is presented with a view of the facility section including information relating to the sizes and positions of the facility equipment 110 relative to each other and the layout of the facility section while simultaneously being provided with access to the equipment entries 110 of the relational database.

[0160] In some embodiments selection and / or hovering the cursor 155 over of a piece of facility equipment 110 may result in an outline of that piece of facility equipment 110 such that the user is made aware of what is selected or is about to be selected. In some embodiments hovering the cursor 155 over a piece of facility equipment 110 in the virtual facility environment 220 may cause an equipment entry related to that piece of facility equipment 110 to be displayed over part of the virtual facility environment 220 shown.

[0161] In some embodiments selecting an area of the virtual facility environment 220 away from a piece of facility equipment 110 allows the user to access facility data.

[0162] In preferrable embodiments at least some of and preferably all of the facility equipment 110 is provided with identification tags 112. Identification tags may for example be QR codes 112 to be scanned by an on-board device or they may be NFC tags that are wirelessly readable by an on-board device in the proximity of the identification tag 112.

[0163] Fig. 4 shows an example of a point cloud view of a facility section. The point cloud view presents a facility point cloud 235 comprising a plurality of datapoints each of which is associated with the position of a surface of a facility section.

[0164] In addition to presenting the user with a view of the facility section including facility equipment and the layout of the facility section, the facility point cloud 235 enables the user to make simulated measurements 237 as illustrated by the line and value of the corresponding length at the facility section.

[0165] In a preferred embodiment the facility point cloud 235 is collected by physical measurements of the facility section and it is possible to make a copy of the facility point cloud creating a simulation point cloud which may be manipulated by the user such that it is possible to simulate maintenance operations such as planning replacement and / or modification of facility equipment.

[0166] Fig. 5 shows an embodiment of communication headwear 130. The communication headwear 130 comprises a headpiece 131 preferably taking the form of a cap or a hardhat as illustrated. The communication headwear 130 may further comprise goggles 132 to which several other features may be mounted. The communication headwear includes a camera 133, which is preferably mounted at the level of the eyes of the on-board personnel wearing the communication headwear, e.g. by a position on the side of the goggles 132. Such a position of the camera 133 ensures that the recordings made with the camera and transmitted to the maintenance specialist will be the same view as what the on-board personnel wearing the communication headwear 130 sees.

[0167] The communication headwear may comprise a wearable display 136 configured to display information from the server system e.g., a view of the maintenance specialist with whom the on-board personnel is communication, a view of at least a subset of the information displayed on the specialist interface such that both the on-board personnel and the maintenance specialist share a view and know what data is available, or it may be a view of the camera recording collected by the camera 133 of the communication headwear 130. It may be preferrable to display only a subset of the information that the maintenance specialist is viewing on the specialist interface as the wearable display 136 is of limited size to ensure that it may be worn with the communication headwear 130. In a preferred embodiment the wearable display 136 is mounted below eye level of the on-board personnel wearing the communication headwear, such that the user may glance down to look at the wearable display 136. This may be done as illustrated by arranging the wearable display 136 immediately below one of the eye pieces of the goggles 132.

[0168] Preferably the communication headwear 130 further comprises audio communication means which may include a microphone 135. In the illustrated embodiment the microphone 135 is mounted on next to the monitor, however the microphone 135 may be arranged anywhere on the communication headwear which allows it to pick up the voice of the on-board personnel wearing the headwear 130.

[0169] The audio communication means may further comprise a speaker 134 or an audio connection for communicating with a headset or earpiece, such an audio connection may be a headphone connection port, or it may be a wireless connection such a Bluetooth connection. Fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of a method of remotely assisting maintenance operations. In the flow diagram dashed lines and outlines indicate optional actions that may be taken for some embodiments and / or depending on the specific use case for the service system.

[0170] A service system as described is provided comprising multiple facilities on which onboard personnel is located and at least one maintenance specialist remotely located from those multiple facilities.

[0171] At some point a first service request is transmitted 310 relating to a first facility. A service request will indicate that there is need of the attention of a maintenance specialist and it will indicate which of the multiple facilities is in need of attention. In some preferred variants the transmitted service request 310 will also include transmitting issue details 312 such as which piece of facility equipment is in need of maintenance and / or why it has been determined that there is a need of maintenance, e.g. due to excessive wear on a specific part. It is understood that the request for maintenance may either be due to a malfunction, due to an issue detected at the first facility either by on-board personnel or by measurements exceeding a preset threshold value. Such an issue needs not be due to a malfunction but may be due to predicted imminent malfunctions. A service request may also be transmitted 310 automatically based on predictive maintenance measures such as based on operation time, based on time since installation, or based on time since last maintenance or service.

[0172] Upon transmittal of the service request 310 to the service system, a maintenance specialist will receive the service request 315.

[0173] A maintenance specialist will access facility data and / or equipment entries 320 via a first specialist interface. The accessing of facility data and / or equipment entries 320 thus happens remotely from the first facility from which the service request was transmitted 310. Which facility data and / or equipment entries 320 are accessed depends on the nature of the maintenance request. In some cases, it may be sufficient to access equipment entries related to the first piece of facility equipment related to which a service request was transmitted, such as specifications, measurement and service history of the first piece of facility equipment, in other cases it may be relevant to cross-reference equipment entries related to similar facility equipment either at the first facility or at a second facility of the service system. In yet other situations it may be relevant for the maintenance specialist to access both facility data and equipment data to determine the origin of the issue and / or to plan the best cause of action.

[0174] During the process of accessing facility data and / or equipment entries 320 the maintenance specialist may consult a virtual environment view of a facility section of the first facility and access equipment entries by selecting a visual representation 322 of the facility equipment in the virtual environment. In some variants it will also be beneficial for the maintenance specialist to carry out simulated measurements 325 in a point cloud view of the facility section.

[0175] Upon accessing facility data and / or equipment entries 320 the maintenance specialist will determine maintenance operations 350 to be carried out in response to the service request. Such maintenance operations are subsequently carried out 370. The relevant maintenance operations may be carried out as on-board maintenance operations 372 and / or as offline maintenance operations 374. In some variants the determination of the maintenance operations 350 relevant to solve the issues may include continuous communication 355 between on-board personnel at the first facility and the maintenance specialist as this may help determine the cause of a malfunction, an underlying issues, and / or what solutions are suitable. In a more preferred variant this continuous communication 355 takes place via communication headwear provided within the framework of the service system.

[0176] On-board maintenance operations 372 are carried out by the on-board personnel locally at the first facility. It will be understood by the person skilled in the art that some disruption of normal operation may need to take place for the maintenance operations to take place e.g., the serviced facility equipment may be temporarily powered down which may affect other activities as well. However, for on-board maintenance operations 372 to be carried out it will not necessarily be required to disrupt a full facility section, fully shut down production, or dock a ship. When the determining of maintenance operations to be carried out 350 leads to on-board maintenance operations 372 being suitable it is preferrable that an intermittent step of transmitting maintenance instructions 365 is included to provide the relevant information to the onboard personnel. Transmitting maintenance instructions 365 may include uploading a maintenance guide to the relational database of the service system, which may then be accessed by the on-board personnel as an equipment entry via the in-board device. Transmitting maintenance instructions 365 may also or alternatively be transmitted as continuous communication 355 between the maintenance specialist continuously guiding the on-board personnel to carry out the relevant maintenance operations 370, preferably via communication headwear provided within the framework of the service system.

[0177] Offline maintenance operations 374 are maintenance operations that are to be carried out when the first facility can be accessed by a maintenance specialist who may need to bring one or more systems offline and / or may need to bring specialised parts for replacement and / or specialised tools for carrying out the maintenance. Offline maintenance operations 374 will typically be more disruptive to the operation of the facility but are necessary to keep the facility operating properly over a longer period of time. Offline maintenance operations 374 may e.g. be carried out when a maintenance specialist is visiting a factory or when a maritime vessel is docked.

[0178] In some situations where offline maintenance operations 374 are to be carried out it is preferable to include a previous step of maintenance preparation 360. By maintenance preparation is understood carrying out operations that will be part of the maintenance which can be done remotely from the first facility and may include pre-designing changes 362 which may in turn include the design, fabrication, and / or requisition of spare or substitute parts. In a preferred variant the maintenance preparation 360 is based on simulated measurements 325.

[0179] In some variants it may be determined that it is necessary to carry out on-board maintenance operations 372 followed by subsequent offline maintenance operations 374 e.g., to make a temporary solution or improvement until more substantial service can be carried out.

[0180] In a preferred variant, maintenance data will be uploaded 380 after maintenance operations have been carried out 370. Uploading maintenance data 380 ensures that all relevant data concerning the history of the facility is available in the service system and that teachings from the maintenance procedure may be used in relation to future service requests.

[0181] While the flowchart of Fig. 6 illustrates the method of assisting maintenance based on a maintenance request regarding a first facility, it will be understood to the person skilled in the art that the service system supports the filing of multiple service requests related to the first facility as well as service requests related to different of the multiple facilities.

[0182] Fig. 7 shows a flow diagram of a method of assisting maintenance operations at one or more facilities. In the flow diagram dashed lines and outlines indicate optional actions that may be taken for some embodiments depending on the specific use of the service system.

[0183] A service system is provided as previously described comprising at least one and preferably multiple facilities on which on-board personnel is located, the service system may further be accessed by one or more maintenance specialist remotely located from the one or more facilities.

[0184] At some point an alert is transmitted 311 by a facility management system of a facility connected to the service system. The alert will indicate that there is facility equipment the functioning of which is deviating from the intended and which needs the attention of a user. Alerts may also arise for other reasons as they are set up for the management system.

[0185] Upon transmittal of the alert 311 it will be received by the service system 316.

[0186] The received alert will be processed by the service system which will identify an error code entry 390 related to the received alert. Based on the identified error code entry which is in the relational database associated with facility equipment, the next step of identifying the facility equipment to which the alert is related 391.

[0187] Once the service system has helped the user understand the cause of the alert and the related facility equipment, and the user has preferably been visually presented with the location of the relevant facility equipment in the virtual environment, the user may take action. In some preferred use cases, a member of the on-board personnel may use the service system and preferably access the virtual environment to identify the piece of facility equipment in need of service. Once the on-board personnel have evaluated the situation, they may find that they are in need of further assistance form a maintenance specialist. In such cases the on-board personnel may transmit a service request 310. If a service request is transmitted some embodiments of the method may continue with the method steps shown in Fig. 6. It is to be understood that an external maintenance expert may also access the virtual environment having the facility equipment to which an alert is associated highlighted such that the external maintenance specialist may obtain the same benefits of the service system as the on-board specialist.

[0188] Fig. 8 shows a view of a virtual facility environment 230 showing photographic data in the form of panoramic data 232. In Fig. 8 the view comprises three-dimensional models only for the purpose of occlusion when changing position relative to the virtual environment.

[0189] In Fig. 8 it is illustrated how a piece of facility equipment 110 may be visually highlighted. In the specific example embodiment of Fig. 8 the facility equipment 110 associated with a specific error code entry has been highlighted in two ways.

[0190] The piece of facility equipment 110 has an overlaid structure 275 around at least the majority of the piece of facility equipment 110 which the issued alert has been linked to by the error code entry. In the shown example the overlaid structure 275 is a circular outline. In other embodiments the overlaid structure 275 may take different shapes, such as squares or be shaped for the outline of the specific piece of facility equipment 110. In yet other variant the overlaid structure may be a semi-transparent structure with or without an outline.

[0191] Furthermore, the piece of facility equipment 110 related to the issued alert has been visually highlighted by being horizontally centred in the presented view of the virtual environment 230.

[0192] LIST OF REFERENCES

[0193] 1 Service system

[0194] 30 Server

[0195] 100 Facility

[0196] 101 Maritime vessel

[0197] 102 Fish processing factory

[0198] 105 Facility section

[0199] 110 Facility Equipment

[0200] 112 Identification tag

[0201] 120 On-board personnel

[0202] 121 On-board device (phone)

[0203] 130 Communication headwear

[0204] 131 Headpiece

[0205] 132 Goggles

[0206] 133 Camera

[0207] 134 Speaker

[0208] 135 Microphone

[0209] 136 Wearable display

[0210] 140 Data storage device

[0211] 150 Maintenance specialist

[0212] 151 Specialist interface

[0213] 200 Relational database

[0214] 220 Facility data

[0215] 222 Facility measurements

[0216] 230 Virtual facility environment

[0217] 231 Photographic data

[0218] 232 Panoramic data

[0219] 233 Three-dimensional model

[0220] 235 Facility point cloud

[0221] 236 datapoints Simulated measurement

[0222] Navigation bar

[0223] Equipment entries

[0224] Origin documents

[0225] Update documents

[0226] Equipment photographs

[0227] Measurement data

[0228] Operation status bar

[0229] Spare parts list

[0230] Error code entries

[0231] Overlaid structure

[0232] Service request is transmitted

[0233] Alert is transmitted

[0234] Transmitting issue details

[0235] Receiving service request

[0236] Receiving alert

[0237] Accessing facility data

[0238] Selecting a visual representation in a virtual environment

[0239] Simulated measurements

[0240] Display of virtual environment

[0241] Determination of maintenance operations

[0242] Continuous communication

[0243] Maintenance preparation

[0244] Pre-designing changes

[0245] Transmitting maintenance instruction

[0246] Carrying out maintenance operations

[0247] On-board maintenance operations

[0248] Offline maintenance operations

[0249] Uploading maintenance data

[0250] Identifying error code entry related to received alert

[0251] Identifying facility equipment to which alert is related Visually highlighting facility equipment

Claims

CLAIMS1. A service system for assisting maintenance of one or more facilities, said system comprising a server configured to receive communication from facility management systems of each of the one or more facilities; a relational database being in communication with said server, said relational database being configured to store: facility data associated with each of the one or more facilities, facility data associated with each specific facility being divided into facility sections, each facility section associated with an area of said specific facility, said facility data comprising: panoramic data associated with each facility section of said specific facility, equipment entries associated with facility equipment located at each of the facility sections; error code entries related to each of the one or more facilities and said error code entries being associated with equipment of the related facility; wherein said service system is configured to receive an alert from said facility management system, said alert identifying an error code entry of said relational database and said service system being configured to link said alert to a specific piece of facility equipment via the association with said error code entries.

2. The service system according to claim 1 , comprising a specialist interface configured to be located remotely from each of said one or more facilities, said specialist interface being in communication with said server and said specialist interface being configured to display data retrieved from said relational database.

3. The service system according to any of the preceding claims, comprising one or more on-board devices configured to be located at the one or more facilities, said onboard devices being configured to communicate with said server and said on-board devices being configured to access and display data from said relational database.

4. The service system according to any of the preceding claims, said panoramic data being configured to be displayed as a virtual facility environment through which a user may manipulate the position from which the panoramic data is viewed.

5. The service system according to any of the preceding claims, said error codes being associated with said panoramic data such that the facility equipment associated with an error code entry may be visually highlighted.

6. The service system according to any of the preceding claims, said facility data comprising a facility point cloud arranged as a point cloud view of a facility section, said facility point cloud comprising a plurality of datapoints providing the spatial relation between the facility equipment and the dimensions of the facility section in which said facility equipment is located whereby measurements of a physical distance, area or volume represented by the facility point cloud may be carried out virtually.

7. The service system according to any of the claims 3-6, wherein at least one piece of facility equipment is supplied with an associated identification tag being configured to be activated by said on-board device; and said service system being configured to automatically display, on a first specialist interface, database entries related to the piece of facility equipment of which the identification tag has been activated.

8. The service system according to any of the claims 3-7, said on-board device comprising communication headwear, said communication headwear facilitating visual communication and audio communication with said specialist interface.

9. The service system according to any of the preceding claims, said equipment entries comprising manuals and service reports.

10. The service system according to any of the preceding claims, said panoramic data being displayed along with three-dimensional models, said three-dimensional model being solely for occlusion.

11. A method of assisting maintenance operations at one or more facilities, said method comprising the steps of: providing a service system according to any of the claims 1-10;receiving an alert from a facility management system; identifying an error code entry of said relational database related to said alert and identifying the facility equipment associated with said error code entry, thereby directly identifying the specific facility equipment subject to an alert and the location of said facility equipment.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein said provided service system comprises an on-board device and wherein said method further comprises the step of displaying panoramic data of the facility section comprising the facility equipment associated with the error code entry and highlighting said associated facility equipment in said display.

13. The method according to any of the claims 11-12, wherein said provided service system comprises a specialist interface and wherein said method further comprises the steps of: transmitting a service request related to a first facility to said specialist interface of the service system; accessing facility data and / or equipment entries from said relational database via said specialist interface of the service system; analysing the service request and facility data and / or equipment entries related to the facility equipment in need of maintenance to determine maintenance operations to be carried out at said first facility, the analysis of said facility data and / or equipment entries taking place remotely from said first facility.

14. The method according to any of the claims 11-13, further comprising pre-designing changes remotely from said first facility and subsequently carrying out maintenance operations incorporating said pre-designed changes.

15. The method according to any of the claims 11-14, further including the step of consulting facility data related to a second facility comprising facility equipment of the same type as the facility equipment to which the error code entry is related.

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