In 2010, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers issued its Report 459, creating a set of 18 rules designed to minimize the number of fatal accidents happening at oil & gas work sites. In 2018, they revised this set of rules, reducing the list to nine and making them more succinct and actionable than the original set. As part of the release of the updated report, the IOGP asserted that more than 375 lives would have been saved over the previous decade had these rules been followed.
Visual AI, in combination with Avathon Industrial AI platform, plays a large role in keeping oil & gas operations safe. Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) management programs utilizing Industrial AI solutions are critical to making sure oil and gas operations adhere closely to the IOGP’s nine rules.
Every second of monitoring matters: Visual AI could be the difference between a near miss and a critical incident.
Visual AI empowers companies to follow IOGP’s nine rules, prevent accidents
Advanced Industrial AI systems like Avathon’s computer vision AI application can use an organization’s existing camera infrastructure, whether fixed, drone-mounted, or on mobile phones. The technology is uniquely equipped to tackle the challenge of ensuring safety in the workplace not only by identifying specific images but by contextualizing what it sees, whether that be a missing piece of personal protective equipment (PPE), a piece of heavy equipment someone is approaching, or an action a worker is taking (or is about to take), particularly if they are not certified for that task. The key is identifying potentially unsafe practices and conditions before they become accidents.
Several safety themes that recur throughout the IOGP report are effectively addressed by visual AI capabilities, including:
AI in work practice awareness
With computer vision AI, workers can be proactively alerted to unsafe actions through nudges to wearable devices or cell phones. Specific IOGP safety themes addressed by this capability include avoiding walking beneath suspended loads, bypassing safety controls, operating in confined spaces, and working with flammable materials and ignition sources.
AI alerts to PPE compliance
Another important use case is adherence to personal protective equipment use. The presence or absence of such equipment can be automatically detected, allowing managers to coach workers in real-time and generate reports about PPE usage over time.
AI prevents vehicle and human interaction
Vehicle management is critically important, particularly in instances where vehicles (piloted or automated) operate in close proximity to workers. Such vehicles could include materials handling equipment like forklifts and robotic vehicles that could pose potential hazards to humans. Visual AI’s ability to monitor and alert on vehicle speed, location, proximity to humans, etc., is critical to ensuring that people and machines are able to work safely and effectively near each other. Several IOGP cases involve either safe vehicle operation or vehicle/human interactions which if not handled properly could result in serious injury or a fatality.
Machine guarding through visual AI
In addition to monitoring for proper placement of chain and blade guards, visual AI also sees if a worker’s hands or feet have crossed a safety line. Further, visual AI systems can determine if the person being viewed is even authorized to be in a particular area based on the level of their training, job description, etc.
Avathon’s Industrial AI platform is a proactive health and safety solution
Leveraging AI-enabled video analysis is a powerful tool for ensuring HSE performance in the oil and gas industry, whether off-shore, at refineries, or even at retail locations. Avathon’s computer vision AI application provides a wide range of capabilities that do not require on-staff data science expertise or resource-intensive manual analysis of video feeds. Our system today is deployed on over 100,000 active cameras worldwide. Users achieve significant safety benefits through simple, intuitively designed interfaces that allow flexible operations while ensuring continuous awareness of safety events or potentially hazardous conditions. The key to optimizing workplace safety is proactive awareness of the conditions that can lead to accidents. Visual AI makes that possible.
Learn more about how Avathon’s Industrial AI platform can improve oil & gas operational safety.
