SE1000735A1 - Protective barrier system with warning functions - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems to protect personnel from hazards in an industry such as, at an oil rig. The system includes deployable sign devices with mechanical mounts and communication connections for sensors, preferably the signs contain wireless communication modules adapted for example wireless local area networks (WLAN) and include computer units with processors and the rriinne to be able to forward sensor signals over the network. The sign devices also include visual alarms and/or audio alarms, such as including lights, display and speakers. (Figure 1)

Description

15 20 25 30 In a preferred embodiment the signs are provided with a motion sensor for alerting people upon entering a dangerous area. Such a sign can for example be positioned when a temporary and risky operation is to be performed in an otherwise safe area.

Although the invention is suitable and exemplified for protection at oil and gas plants, it can be used in other industries including power plants, energy transmission, manufacturing facilities, agriculture and also for rescuing personnel and police to wam people from accidents, dangerous emissions or fire.

Description of embodiments and advantages Introduction Today, oil and gas plants have a number of HSB-related (Health and Safety) sensors through- out the plant, such as to detect gas or fi re. There are two main issues that relate to this current style of deployment. Cost limits the number of sensors, meaning some areas of the plant are not covered by sensing, or only in a limited fashion. Ideal sensor deployment is not necessar- ily known in advance and temporary work being carried out in the plant might require dy- narnic placement. Sensors fi equently report false positives and due to low density of cover- age, it is not immediately clear if the alert is due to failure or an actual alarm condition.

Hand-held mobile gas detectors are currently used, however they are not linked to the control system and have lirnited range.

The novelty of this system is a re-deployable, mobile safety system which can provide visual and audible alerts to nearby personnel and also integrate into centralized safety systems, making the same alarms available to the control system and control room operator.

The invention is further described below with exemplifying embodiments referring to the invention as Perimeter +, which provides a mobile, sensing safety perimeter. Examples of con- structions, advantages, uses, problems and implementation in different embodiments are dis- cussed so as to facilitate the embodying of the inventive concept with its benefits in different situations and locations.

BACKGROUND of use in oil and gas plants While there are a large number of and re and gas detectors deployed around a typical oil and gas plant, they have a fixed location and may not necessarily be in the right place at the right time. 10 15 20 25 30 Sensor deployments are typically limited due to cost and also because there is not necessarily a good understanding of ideal sensor positioning during plant design. For example, during operation, it may become apparent that a particular pipe section is inclined to overheatirig and needs careful monitoring. In another scenario, work could be carried out in an area of the plant that is only covered by a single sensor, which is prone to failure and does not provide good coverage of the space. Sensors currently trigger alarms which appear in the control room and also light blue lamps in the vicinity. The lamps tend to be easily missed because they are mounted high and the blue light is not particularly visible in daylight. Like sensors, they are infrequent in number, thus there could be much better visible, localized alerting for alarm conditions.

DESIGN More sensors would provide better accuracy and granularity to HSE alarms and thus provide a quicker, more effective response to a problem than the fi xed-location sensors alone. Cur- rently, safety barriers must be erected before work is carried out in the plant. These barriers serve as a visual and physical barrier around a potentially hazardous area. Perimeter + includes sensors with alarms and can be used to augment the barriers of the prior art with a sensor mesh of detectors.

Perimeter + is preferably provided with the wireless, and battery-powered mesh infrastructure, so there will be no need to set up or con fi gure the barrier - workers erect it as usual and the sensors are preferably adapted to self-organize and communicate with each other. The Perime- ter + barrier however can redundantly provide an extra layer of safety, particularly against the invisible threat of gas leak. It is suitably provided with data network communication means and light means like LEDs or lamp. It can be arranged and adapted so that if a gas leak or fi re is detected, an alarm sounds and the barrier lights up alerting the people in the area, and serve as a beacon for rescue personnel. Perimeter + is preferably designed to transparently link via a WLAN of the plant network so that alarms propagate to the control system.

Figure l illustrates Perimeter + deployed. Sensor and communications package is mounted at the top, warning lights on the sides. 10 15 20 25 30 The Perimeter is new compared to known prior systems in that it is a re-deployable mobile safety system which can provide visual and audible alerts to nearby personnel and also inte- grate into centralized safety systems, making the same alarms available to the control system and control room operator.

Further Embodiments, design and advantages of Perimeter + The Perimeter + should be designed to provide a mobile, re-deployable smart perimeter which can increase safety and security. Perimeter + should therefore take the forrn of a usual visual barrier system {often deployed to form a perimeter around worksites} which is augmented with additional sensing, communication and computational capabilities.

PROBLEM AREAS SUMMARIZED WHEREIN THE SYSTEM CAN BE EMPLOYED In brief, these are the maj or existing problems which protective systems like Perimeter + seeks to address, and which the invention is suitably adapted to solve or alleviate. "Sensing" in this document should be interpreted to refer to at least HSE-related sensors, such as gas leak or detection re detection, security sensors, such as detecting movement and object proximity or any other sensor package. The design concept for preferred embodiments of the invention should be sensor-agnostic.

* Mobile sensing (such as a gas leak detector) is in the prior art not integrated into central systems for centralized management, reporting and response.

* Ad-hoc or emergency needs for additional sensing capability cannot be adequately met with today's systems.

* Existing safety or security visual barriers are passive and do not have localized alerting capabilities, thus easily ignored.

* Existing safety or security barriers are 'dumb' and have no ability to determine if a threat or warning level should increase based on emergency conditions.

* The low density of sensing in current approaches increases false alarms, reduces reliability, and provides little data on the dynamics and scale of the sensed situation.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED FUNCTIONALITY OF THE INVENTION FOR IMPROVING SAF ETY Barriers are often set up as a visual guide and warning of potential risks or to otherwise guide human behavior, such as queuing barriers at airport security checkpoints. These barriers are 10 15 20 25 30 intrinsically weak, but are valued because they are mobile and are dynarnically recon fi gur- able. In some industrial workplaces, such as an oil and gas plant, there is a requirement that a visual barrier is set up around a worksite.

Barriers are also frequently used to guide human movement (such as in airports) or to weakly prevent access (such as in museums).

Perimeter + includes means able to take the basic concept of the barrier - a set of movable, sel f-supponing stands or posts that are preferably connected by a ribbon-like material - and augment it With technology to provide enhanced safety, security and productivity. Each stand of the invention encases a self-contained unit which can sense one or more parameters (de- pending on the sensor used) and which includes means to be able to communicate wirelessly With nearby units in an ad-hoc sensor mesh network.

Each stand is also suitably provided with an integrated light and speaker for localized alerting.

The barrier is designed to be erected like a normal barrier and does not require any special configuration. The mesh network is preferably also adapted to communicate with the wide-area wire-less plant network, automatically forwarding events and to alert to the control system where the alerts can be managed like a normal sensor xed sensor is managed in the plant.

Because sensing and computing is localized by the Perimeter + in the space which is mom'- tored or protected, the system can provide fi ne-grained sensing and alerting. In addition, the active nature of Perimeter + can be used to provide additional alerting beyond that of the tradi- tional barrier. For example, as someone approaches a Perimeter + barrier With a proxirnity sensor, progressive audible warnings can be produced.

In preferred embodiments of the system it is designed as a re-deployable, smart mobile sens- ing system which can provide visual and audible alerts to nearby personnel and also adapted to integrate into existing (or additional) centralized safety systems, making the same alarms available to the control system and control room operator.

HSE in OIL & GAS CONTEXT In the following HSE at an oil and gas plant will be discussed to put forward desired functionality and facilitate construction of a system benefiting from the inventive Perimeter + concept.

While there are a number of air and gas detectors deployed around a typical oil and gas plant, they have a hot location and may not necessarily be in the right place at the right time. Sen- 10 15 20 25 30 sor deployments are limited due to cost and also because there is not necessarily a good un- derstanding of ideal sensor placement when designing the plant. Fixed sensors trigger alarms which appear in the control room and also light blue lamps in the vicinity. The lamps tend to be easily missed because they are infrequent in number, mounted high and the blue light is not particularly visible in daylight.

For example, during operation, it may become apparent that a particular pipe section is in- clined to overheating and needs careful monitoring. In another scenario, work could be carried out in an area of the plant that's only covered by a single sensor, which is prone to failure and does not provide good coverage of the space. A worse situation is where work is carried out in an area with no fixed sensors in the vicinity. In this case, a single gas detector may be ar- ranged at the site and used to alert workers of potential risks. This detector only alerts those in the vicinity, and not the control system. There is currently no simple means to deploy and leave additional sensing in an area which requires on-going monitoring. This can be useful during ongoing maintenance or monitoring of particular areas which are under stress.

More sensors would provide better accuracy and granularity to HSE alarms and thus provide a quicker, more effective response to a problem than the fi xed-location sensors alone. Cur- rently, safety barriers must be erected before work is carried our in the plant. These barriers serve as a visual and (weak) physical barrier around a potentially hazardous area. Perimeter + augments these barriers with a sensor mesh of detectors. Because of the wireless, battery-powered mesh infrastructure, there is no need to set up or con fi gure the barrier - workers erect it as usual and the sensors communicate and self-organize. If a gas leak or fire is detected, an alarm sounds and the barrier lights up alerting the people in the area, and serving as a beacon for rescue personnel. Perimeter + transparently links via WLAN to the plant network so that alarms propagate to the control system.

SECURITY in a ROBOTICS CONTEXT Robots generally operate in fi xed cages or behind fences which act as a visual and physical barrier to prevent contact with the robot. Some robot manufacturers are using contactless bar- riers, such as using beams of light Which stop the robot if a beam is broken. increasingly, however, robots are being used in more dynamic Ways in which they operate in shared spaces with humans. For example, the oil and gas industry is anticipating the use of robots 10 15 20 25 30 extensively in offshore platforms, however there will often still be a need for humans to work in these "roboticized" environments. In today's environment, automotive assembly plants are highly roboticized yet it would be useful if humans could safely work within the environment (such performing maintenance work) without necessitating an entire plant shutdown. Perime- ter + could be used in these situations to erect a robot barrier in the temporary area the humans are working in. If the barrier senses an approaching robot, it include communication means that can be adapted to signal the robot controller to divert the robot, slow its speed, alert the human Operators, stop it, or some combination thereof.

BENEFITS of GENERAL USE * For existing plants, Perimeter-t can provide a cost-effective way of providing additional sensing capabilities without large investment.

* For new plants, Perimeterl- can provide a cost-effective way of providing localized, dy- namic sensing capabilities for areas of temporal interest, such as a work site.

* Wireless and seamless integration into control systems allows remotely sensed events to be managed and responded to with existing tools, technologies and work * ows * Self-organizing and con fi guring sensor mesh does not require configuration and offers resilient, reliable service.

BENEFITS of use for HSE SENSING * Field Operators and service personnel have better personal safety through quick, localized alerting, redundant sensing and control system integration * Plant operators can better monitor and respond to incidents because sensing is integrated into control system and provides richer data, such as how large the incident is, if it is growing or moving, exactly where it is and so on * Rescue personnel can better identify the location of the incident when at the site through the audible and visual alerting on the barrier itself BENEFITS of SECURITY SENSING * Safe security barriers can be quickly and cheaply erected to warn people to keep out of an area.

* Active altering (such as voice messages) can be more effective than a simple visual barrier.

* Data logging and transmission allows transgressions to be tracked and managed centrally. 10 15 20 25 * Barriers can be smart: people with appropriate ID cards might be able to cross without warning if they have the requisite privileges TECHNICAL SPECIFICS AND ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY Each stand of the barrier contains a battery pack, lights and speaker. There should be bright alarm lights of a single color, and perhaps a small array of LED lights on the four faces of the stand to produce color hues or basic symbols. For example, while the alarm lights fl ash to indicate high levels of gas, the LED array could be adapted to indicate on a per-stand basis the sensed levels, or show arrows, indicating the best way to approach the hazard. Sensing is accomplished using an exchangeable sensor module, which allows the barriers to be used for different purposes. In one embodiment stands communicate wirelessly using a sensor mesh such as Dust Network's protocol. The mesh communicates with the plant wireless network either using a standard Dust Network gateway, or WLAN radio in the stand. Once the data has propagated to the plant network, it can be used as an input to the control system using existing software toolkits and systems such as OPC and System 800xA. One "lead" stand per barrier can contain a cheap, low-power embedded microprocessor to provide additional computation and functionality for the mesh (for example, WLAN connectivity, data logging, active alerting and so on). The lead stand might also contain a GPS receiver or other positional system which could accurately locate the barrier within the plant and Supplement data.

RFID readers could also be integrated to enable a number of interesting scenarios. For exam- ple, the barrier could detect nearby personnel or potentially hazardous materials. A printed work permit with RFID tag could be identified, linking the barrier with the work order, and further integrating the barrier with the control system and existing work fl ows. If the work permit is not activated in the control system, the barrier might light a different color.

Claims (13)

10 15 20 25 30 Claims 1. Protecting system for an industrial installation comprising a plurality of erected or erectable signs or stands, each sign being provided With means for connecting at least one sensor, processing means provided for handling signals from the sensor, communicating means for transferring warning information to a control system the industrial installation, which processing means is operatively connected to the communication means and adapted to transmit information relating to detections made by the sensor to the control system. 2. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein each sign includes a lighting device, such as a lamp or LED, for warning the personnel. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein each sign includes a loudspeaker for warning the personnel. 4. Protecting system according to clairn 1, where each sign includes means for communicating with a machine or robot operating at the industrial installation, and is adapted to send a command to the machine or robot as a response to a signal from the sensor . 5. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is selected among the group of sensors including sens re sensors, motion sensors, gas sensors, liquid sensors and temperature SCIISOIS. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein the communication means includes means for wireless communication, preferably including WLAN communication means or Dust Networks protocol. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein the sign includes a position detecting means, preferably a GPS receiver. 8. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein the sign includes electronic identi fi ca- tion means, preferably an RFID identi fi er or a bar code identifier, whereby corresponding ID tags carried by personnel can be detected and identi fi ed. 10 15 10 9. Protecting system according to claim 1, including a barrier, preferably a fence or part of a fence, and wherein said sign is arranged on the barrier. 10. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein the sign includes an electric battery for powering the sign. 11. ll. Protecting system according to claim l, including personally carried warning devices with means for alerting the user, such as including loudspeaker, vibrator or light, and wherein the sign and the warning devices include means for communicating. 12. Protecting system according to claim ll, wherein the system is arranged to transfer warnings from the sign to the personally carried warning devices so that the personnel is / are alerted when danger is detected by the sensor. 13. Protecting system according to claim 1, wherein the signs are portable, and have a weight less than 10 kg.