Webinar on
Unmanned
and autonomous systems:
Future of
automation in process industries
16th May 2024 at 3pm (UK time)
The
shortage of skilled workers is increasingly impacting various industries in
developed economies. Although the chemical industry has been a frontrunner in
adopting automation technologies, there has been a noticeable stagnation, with
a continued reliance on human supervision and decision-making in many plants.
It is also not uncommon for frequent human interventions to be required for
troubleshooting and maintenance of machinery, sensors, and process units.
Consequently, advancements in artificial intelligence and autonomous systems
are attracting considerable attention within the chemical process industry,
mirroring trends in other sectors.
This talk
will present a detailed analysis of the roles that plant operators, engineers,
technicians, and workers currently play and will examine how these tasks might
be performed remotely and either augmented or replaced by technical systems,
considering both current technological capabilities and anticipated
advancements.
We will
also outline the specific requirements that differentiate emerging autonomous
systems from traditional automation technologies in use today. We will explore
the concept of complexity as a measure of the challenges AI systems face, how
this complexity manifests in chemical process plants, and strategies for
managing complexity to ease the transition toward autonomous operation.
The session
will conclude with a showcase of past and ongoing projects at the Autonomous
Industrial Systems Laboratory at Imperial College London, highlighting our efforts
to enhance autonomy in chemical plants.
This
webinar will be presented by Mehmet Mercangöz,
Imperial College London
The webinar
will last no longer than one hour.
To register
please contact christine.stevenson@strath.ac.uk