Computer Assisted Operations

Working down this list, we see more innovative approaches. The unmanned option using computer assisted operation (discussed in Section 11.2) would improve safety of personnel and reduce operating cost. This is an example of innovation and the use of technology by the engineer, and is driven by an awareness of safety. 

Monitoring and control of the production process will be performed by a combination of instrumentation and control equipment plus manual involvement. The level of sophistication of the systems can vary considerably. For example, monitoring well performance can be done in a simple fashion by sending a man to write down and report the tubing head pressures of producing wells on a daily basis, or at the other extreme by using computer assisted operations (CAO) which uses a remote computer-based system to control production on a well by well basis with no physical presence at the wellhead. 

Computer assisted operations (CAO) involves the use of computer technology to support operations, with functions ranging from collection of data using simple calculators and PCs to integrated computer networks for automatic operation of a field. In the extreme case CAO can be used for totally unmanned offshore production operations with remote... 

Artificial lift techniques are discussed in Section 9.6. During production, the operating conditions of any artificial lift technique will be optimised with the objective of maximising production. For example, the optimum gas-liquid ratio will be applied for gas lifting, possibly using computer assisted operations (CAO) as discussed in Section 11.2. Artificial lift may not be installed from the beginning of a development, but at the point where the natural drive energy of the reservoir has reduced. The implementation of artificial lift will be justified, like any other incremental project, on the basis of a positive net present value (see Section 13.4). 

Control Devices. Control devices have advanced from manual control to sophisticated computer-assisted operation. Radiation pyrometers in conjunction with thermocouples monitor furnace temperatures at several locations (see Temperature measurement). Batch filling is usually automatically controlled. Combustion air and fuel are metered and controlled for optimum efficiency. For regeneration-type units, furnace reversal also operates on a timed program. Data acquisition and digital display of operating parameters are part of a supervisory control system. The grouping of display information at the control center is typical of modem furnaces. 

The operational procedures of the chamber have recently been upgraded from manual to automatic with the installation of a dedicated computer system (Kinetic Systems Inc., CAMAC with DEC LSI 11/23 microprocessor). This allows precise and reproducible control which was impossible under manual operation. Computer assisted operation was achieved through the development of an algorithm which controls the chamber wall temperature and cooling rate while maintaining a specified differential between air and wall temperature (AT = 0.0 0.2°C). The differential is maintained by adiabatic cooling of the air caused by variation of the rate of evacuation. 

In the rest of the paper, we present an overview of the human factors literature on automation bias and related concepts (section 2) a brief description of a case study in the area of computer-assisted cancer detection, which has motivated many of the analyses and conclusions presented in this paper (section 3) an outline of the mechanisms contributing to errors of omission by computer-assisted operators (section 4) a discussion of the uses and limitations of this descriptive approach (section 5) and conclusions (section 6). 

With reference to a category of computer-assisted human tasks, we have highlighted a variety of alternative mechanisms that could lead to omission errors by the computer assisted operators. We have shown that errors that are often ascribed to complacency or over-reliance on computers, can actually be caused by other mechanisms, in fact even when the operators do not trust the automated tool. 

Taking into account that it is necessary to make vary the flaw detector settings during the main part of the verifications, the total number of verifications is rather important. So, Technical Center for Mechanical Industries (CETIM) began the development of an electronic system enabling to benefit of the current possibilities of generation of synthesised radio frequency signals and help of personal computer for operator assistance and calculation. 

Extmsion processing is highly automated. Some extmders may process over 9 t/h, and in one Ralston Purina plant (Davenport, Iowa) 30 extmders were operating in a single location. With computer assistance, one person can operate many different extmders, and several different foods can be produced simultaneously. These maybe different formulations or different colors and shapes to be packaged singly or combined into one variety pack. The differences in variety may be attributable only to added colors or different shapes. 

Ohio River Division perform a variety of computer assisted tasks in assessing water quality and providing input to water management decisions. These include developing and running sophisticated water quality models evaluating water quality data and operating an automated water quality laboratory. 

The Corey-Wipke approach considered above actually represents a backward computer-assisted search of synthetic pathways, which is set up as an interactive procedure with the operator helping to guide the selection of the most promising routes. In this approach the computer is assigned to the job of accumulation, storage, and processing of all chemical information amenable to formalization, while the chemist is supposed to make a final evaluation of the suggested retrosynthetic solutions and to control the direction of further searches. 

To operate SMB chromatography a lot of parameters (column diameter, column length, total column number and number of columns per section, eluent, feed, raffinate, extract and recycle fluid flow and switch time interval) have to be chosen correctly. Therefore, design and process optimization should be done by computer simulations. It is much more difficult to optimize SMB during nonlinear conditions as compared to linear conditions. In fact, empirical approaches for optimization during overloaded and non-linear conditions are in most cases even impossible [96, 97], Computer-assisted optimization is therefore especially important for chiral separations since these CSPs have in general lower saturation capacities compared to non-chiral columns (see paper III). 

Computer-assisted thermochemistry is a tool that can be applied in many fields today. In particular, with the aid of reliable thermochemical source data and appropriate application software, optimum operating tempera tures, reacting amounts and/or gas pressures necessary to obtain a product of the required purity can be calculated. Costly and time-consuming experimental work can thereby be reduced considerably [1]. 

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