New technologies like artificial intelligence and Industry 4.0 are opening up the trend towards autonomous operation of industrial facilities. This shift will be a journey- and has already started with more lean & remote operations. We are seeing that shift towards unmanned/or lean-manned and ultimately autonomous. These technologies allow us to move away from traditional ‘automated’ technologies where we are planning for what we know, and go towards autonomous where we can deal with what we don’t know yet.

Examples of technology that we see supporting this trend in 2019:

1. Virtual assistants/ AI – Virtual assistants can be used to monitor, analyze and repair plant operations. These assistants analyze the data, know industrial processes, predict anomalies and provide proactive decision making with machine learning. This technology will provide end users improved profitability with proactive activity recommendations.

2. Condition monitoring with sensors- We are seeing technologies like sensors become both more affordable and also more robust. These sensors are attached to standard equipment and then machine learning modules are used to determine overall asset health and also alert operators when equipment needs assistance. These types of sensors can save significantly on maintenance costs.

3. VR/AR- Augmented and virtual technologies are being used to help less-experienced operators perform complex service interventions using virtual googles and tablets. The goggles allow for the super imposition of computer generated images on the user’s real wolrd view- displaying real time data on actual equipment nearby.

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