The Robert Gordon University (RGU) and international certification body DNV GL have collaborated to develop a software to help oil and gas industry save cost.
The project, ‘Digitization Platform for Processing, Detecting and Classifying Symbols in Engineering Drawings’, is being funded the Data Lab Innovation Centre, supported by DNV GL, and delivered by a team of researchers from RGU’s School of Computing Science and Digital Media.
The team includes project lead Eyad Elyan, research fellow Carlos Moreno and Professor Chrisina Jayne. It started this January and is expected to be completed early next year.
The aim of the project is to speed up the whole process of interpretation and contextualisation of engineering drawings and to make it more cost effective.
According to the Data Lab, the oil and gas industry has an extensive historical data and by the employing modern data analytical techniques, the data can be analysed to get valuable insights that help drive significant cost and efficiency savings at all levels in the industry.
RGU School of Computing Science and Digital Media senior lecturer Eyad Elyan said: “This project provides a great opportunity for our team to apply cutting-edge research on a real-life and challenging business problem like this one.
“The results we are aiming at will not only produce a solution capable of interpreting engineering diagrams automatically, but will also provide a unique opportunity to mine large collections of such drawings, find hidden knowledge and patterns and inform future practices.”
DNV GL in Aberdeen senior principal specialist Brian Bain said: “Much of the time involved in running technical studies on the safety and performance of offshore installations is taken up in the gathering of information.
“For older installations, this is held in hard copy engineering drawings. By automating the process we hope to provide a faster and more efficient service to the industry.”