Remote Operations Work Flow

This application note describes a remote work flow system which is used in the field for remote based maintenance trucks to enable centrally based work flow systems to be used by remotely located personnel. The remote locations are anywhere within a region and the central location is in a head or branch office. Trucks in the field would be equipped with Inmarsat BGAN Satellite communication systems with roof mounted omni directional satellite antennae to provide internet connectivity, voice connectivity, and Wi-Fi connectivity. In some regions cell phone coverage may be available, and this provides similar functionally.

The trucks in the field would be equipped with rugged tablet computers, for example the ALGIS rugged laptop computer which would be accessing several corporate applications on a central office or central control centre. Trucks in the field would be equipped with a Neon GPS receiver / Neon remote asset / vehicle tracking system so the location of each truck could be known and displayed at the central location or control centre to at all times to ensure a high level of occupational health and safety for field staff. The trucks may also have a small printer for printing various documents as and when required.

Application Detail

The GPS coordinates of each truck would be checked every period, typically each 5 minutes and their location displayed on Google Maps or other LIS systems such as ESRI at the central control room. These systems could geo reference the truck in the field and bring up alarms if the location was outside safe limits.
A security camera inside the vehicle and / or outside the vehicle would take a low resolution image typically each 5 minutes and that image would be displayed next to the truck icon on Google Maps or other LIS systems such as ESRI at the central control room.
Other vital functions, perhaps temperature, water availability, truck battery volts, fuel level and other parameters could also be monitored and displayed and alarmed if out of limits. A field staff/driver distress button could also be installed in the truck to alert the central location of any dangerous condition. The rugged tablet computer in the field could access well, pipeline and other infrastructure information documents which are available on document systems within the company’s document control system through an appropriate Adobe / PDF interface, providing up to the minute accurate information on all remote infrastructure.

This would eliminate the need to carry updated reference manuals and would ensure any updated manual would be immediately available for field staff use, and they would be accessing only the latest manuals / instructions. The rugged tablet computer in the field would also access a work flow / scheduling system for jobs to be completed in the field, and associated Health and Safety plans. The staff in the field could access the work flow system indicating job progress and completion through the rugged tablet computer in the field. The staff in the field could also take high resolution images and some video to indicate the operational status of various infrastructure in the field. The main cost for the truck would be an omni directional antenna based Inmarsat BGAN Satellite receiver. Some other truck infrastructure would need to be considered, printers, cameras and the like as well as a rugged tablet computer, such as an ALGIS.
The applications are relatively small interfaces between other corporate applications.

The satellite bandwidth would utilize a special SCAPS tariff package with Inmarsat to allow for, say 1 GB per month, across 100 trucks, where some trucks would use less and some trucks would use more. A cell phone service would also use an aggregated plan for airtime. The router / firewall settings in the truck and at the central location would be set up to only access the allowed applications, to ensure there is no use of the system for general applications, especially social networks. General internet connectivity would normally be disallowed through router settings and through use of a secure VPN / APN network supplied by the satellite operator.