Safety Training System using Plant Simulator for Distance Cooperative Work in Chemical Plants

Abstract

According to a recent report by the Japanese government, about 40% of accidents in the chemical industrial complex are caused by human factors. At the same time, due to changes in the social structure, problems of retirement of a large number of mandatory retirements at the manufacturing site and technical inheritance due to a decrease in the labor force population have been pointed out. To convey accurately indication information of work in chemical plant, we need safety education systems to support operators/workers to follow correct operating procedures without human error. In this study, it is used a dynamic plant simulator instead of a real chemical plant to reproduce the behavior of the plant. Plant operators can use tablet PCs in the field or desktop PCs in the control room. The proposed system can display information on the tablet PCs that have been standardized to include various operational procedures under regular conditions as well as during emergencies. In addition, the field worker can control plant simulator from onsite using mobile small PCs. The plant information is stored in a database that can be accessed and used as needed. The field operators can communicate with the control room about ongoing situations using the camera included in the tablet PC. In many chemical plants, onsite workers cannot quantitatively know the degree of a valve opening, and in order to know whether the work they did was appropriate, they must contact the control room. To solve this inefficiency, in this system, the process value of the plant simulator is routed to the tablet PC. Under the present circumstances emergency training to prevent accidents at chemical plants is not enough although their importance is recognized. We expect that this system can be used for safety training/education using a real onsite work environment.