Autonomous Field Monitoring for Oil and Gas Anomaly Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
Oil and gas fields face challenges due to physical separation and lack of system integration, limiting operational visibility, data storage, and analysis, requiring on-site visits for data collection and lacking efficient automation and data communication.
Innovation Solution
An end-to-end, distributed system utilizing autonomous vehicles like UAVs and UGVs for edge data analytics, AI-powered predictive maintenance, and peer-to-peer networks for anomaly detection and automated operations, integrating with existing sensors and automation systems to reduce hardware costs and enhance data processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If facilities and assets are physically separated to reduce infrastructure costs, then installation complexity is reduced, but operational visibility and data collection capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces autonomous vehicles as intermediary devices that travel between physically separated facilities to collect data, and introduces communication networks as intermediaries to transmit data between distributed assets. This resolves the contradiction by enabling information flow without requiring physical infrastructure connection.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs self-propelled autonomous vehicles that independently navigate to facilities, collect data using onboard sensors, and transmit information without human intervention. This enables data collection from separated facilities while maintaining operational visibility, resolving the contradiction between physical separation and information access.
2Measurement precision
If on-site visits are conducted to collect well data, then data accuracy is improved, but time consumption and operational efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual on-site data collection with autonomous vehicles equipped with sensors that automatically measure and collect data from facilities. This substitution maintains data accuracy through precise sensor measurements while dramatically reducing time consumption by eliminating human travel and manual data gathering processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The autonomous vehicles operate continuously, traveling between facilities and collecting data without interruption. This continuous operation maintains high data accuracy through consistent measurement protocols while reducing total time consumption compared to periodic manual visits, as the system can monitor multiple facilities in sequence without downtime.
3Ease of manufacture
If automation systems are partially integrated to reduce implementation costs, then initial investment is reduced, but data communication and analysis capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs autonomous vehicles that serve multiple functions: data collection, communication relay, and system coordination. These universal devices can operate with partially integrated automation systems while still enabling comprehensive data communication and analysis, resolving the contradiction between implementation cost and data analysis capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The autonomous vehicles act as intermediaries that bridge gaps in partially integrated automation systems. They collect data from facilities with varying levels of integration and transmit information through communication networks to centralized analysis systems, enabling full data analysis capability even when individual facilities have limited automation integration.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for autonomous operation and management of oil and gas fields includes at least one autonomous vehicle. The system also includes a processor communicatively couplable to the plurality of autonomous vehicles and a non-transitory memory device including instructions that are executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform operations. The operations include receiving field analytics data of an oil and gas field and producing at least one hydrocarbon field model based on the field analytics data. Additionally, the operations include deploying the at least one hydrocarbon field model to a sensor trap appliance using the at least one autonomous vehicles and collecting well sensor data from the sensor trap appliance. Further, the operations include detecting an anomaly using the at least one hydrocarbon field model and the well sensor data and triggering an operational process based on detecting the anomaly.