Vision Controls'' CAM Workstation CM, developed for high quality, high frames per second, digital video recording and data analysis, is a process control surveillance technology integrated to factory floor data points (PLCs, Process Control Computers) for production process condition monitoring.
The introduction of video to supervise production creates four-dimensional monitoring capabilities. Sensing devices such as photoelectric or proximity sensors that typically stand guard to detect anomalies have very limited ranges of observation; the Vision Controls approach enlists these sensors, along with alarms and PLCs, and brings in digital video for supervision in all three dimensions. The fourth dimension is the statistical analysis of detected events for problem diagnosis provided by the software. Taking the process a step further, the CAM Workstation CM enables engineers to work up video reports on the condition in question.
Vision Controls supplies digital video compression codecs and video streaming technology to customers who wish to portray process control events over the web. Process control events are stored and filed by user defined file management structures in a system powered by a searchable cataloging technology called Vweb Media Manager. Users log in to Vweb and search for meaningful manufacturing events. An HTML list of events is presented; the user clicks on the desired event and begins streaming it over the Web to review both video and data.
IEN: How can manufacturers use existing technologies in new ways?
Davis: Digital video capture and compression coupled with Internet transmission and analysis is expanding the power of currently used sensing devices. While these sensors can be highly accurate, their scope is limited. Use of video provides the whole picture, tying together the precision of available sensors with the overall view of the situation. Furthermore, software can enable hours, days, or even weeks of video observation to be logged, retrieved, and analyzed with the depth of statistics and the context of the human eye. This technology does not supplant currently available techniques, but rather integrates sensors and process control PLCs with high-resolution color sensitive digital video.
IEN: How are software and equipment being improved?
Davis: By integrating data with high quality, high frames per second digital video, analysis data is easily correlated with the visual picture. Cameras can see processes in harsh environments that humans are unable to tolerate. Using compression, streaming, and event cataloging, information for analysis by expert teams dispersed long distances across the enterprise enhances the process improvement technique.
For four dimensional monitoring to impact the production process, Vision Controls CAM CM technology includes:
- Alarm/Event Monitoring: Multiple alarm/event monitor sequences the factory''s digital video events with process alarms. Manufacturing events are listed by manufacturing process, alarm type, and date/time. Click on the event to view the digital video frames correlated to those events. Unattended event monitoring insures engineers won''t miss the critical moments required for analysis.
- USER Control Interface: The CAM CM Control Software interface makes operating the system as easy as using a home VCR. Vision Controls digital capture technology insures that high quality, fast response video frames are right at the fingertips.
- VIDEO Reports: Capturing Digital Video Frames is one thing, but putting it into a meaningful report is another. CAM CM VIDEO Reports will easily communicate factory events in a meaningful format to facilitate corrective action sessions.
IEN: Is the drive toward lean/flexible manufacturing impacting this sector?
Davis: Four-dimensional monitoring can make a significant contribution toward lean manufacturing. This system is a valuable tool in isolating and identifying incidents that are non-value added to the process, and enables observation that goes beyond the power of the human eye.