Chemical Engineering March 2023 - 12

Newsfront
Head to Toe Technology:
Advances in Wearables
From headsets to gloves to fabric sensors, technologies that can be worn on the body are providing
many new benefits for plant workers
A
pace with innovations in all
" smart " technologies, wearable
devices
for
industrial
personnel
are rapidly evolving
to incorporate enhanced connectivity,
bioresponsive behavior, augmented
reality and more.
Expanding what we see
In chemical plants, engineers and operators
often must perform inspection
and measurement tasks in cramped,
dark or dangerous locations. Now,
a new device developed by a team
of researchers from the Rolls-Royce
University Technology Center (UTC)
in Manufacturing and On-Wing Technology
at the University of Nottingham
(www.nottingham.ac.uk/utc), in cooperation
with Rolls-Royce plc (Derby,
U.K.; www.rolls-royce.com), aims to
make these activities safer and more
effective by enabling users to " see "
with their hands. The EyeGlove system
(Figure 1) comprises several tiny
cameras mounted on the fingertips of
a glove, along with a connected headset
that can directly display inspection
and measurement results.
" Conventional inspection tools, such
as borescopes and endoscopes, usually
have long passive sections, which
are difficult to control in complex environments.
Thanks to the flexibility
University of Nottingham
and dexterity of human hands and
arms, the EyeGlove's finger-mounted
cameras can be easily controlled and
posed, " explains Dragos Axinte, director
of the Rolls-Royce UTC. " Furthermore, "
says Axinte, " three high-power
LED lights complement the cameras,
making the EyeGlove adaptable for
use in dark environments. "
FIGURE 1. The EyeGlove system involves tiny cameras
that are mounted on the fingertips of gloves,
enabling inspection and measurement in confined,
dark spaces
12
" By wearing the EyeGlove system,
operators' hands can be freed to hold
and manipulate repair tools, such as
spanners, files and rasps, or other inspection
tools, such as ultrasonic or
eddy-current probes. This enables
operators to accomplish more tasks
at the same time, " adds Xin Dong,
associate professor at the University
of Nottingham. The research team,
led by Axinte, has demonstrated prototype
EyeGlove systems in several
confined scenarios, such as turbine
engines and pipelines (Figure 2), and
tested measurement accuracy in different
lighting conditions.
" In addition to confined environments,
large-scale open areas are
widely encountered in chemical plants,
such as large vessels and high distillation
units. Inspection in these spaces
requires operators to climb above
the ground, and it is difficult to bring
a large and cumbersome inspection
system. The EyeGlove system can
be used to assist operators to easily
inspect these spaces because of its
flexibility and light weight, " adds Erhui
Sun, a research associate who originally
developed the system.
Headsets and smart glasses can
also provide " hands-free " access to
process and equipment data beyond
what the eye can see when in
the field, but it is crucial that these
devices are not too bulky or uncomfortable
to wear. Rather, they should fit
seamlessly with an engineer's typical
University of Nottingham
FIGURE 2. Difficult-to-inspect spaces, such as
pipelines and turbine internals, can benefit from
the EyeGlove's versatility
personal protective equipment (PPE).
The Visor-EX 01 smart glasses (Figure
3), developed by ECOM Instruments
GmbH, a Pepperl+Fuchs brand (Assamstadt,
Germany; www.ecom-ex.
com), were designed with wearability
in mind by minimizing the amount of
weight that must be balanced directly
on the head. " By outsourcing much of
the components for computing and
energy supply to our Smart-Ex 02
smartphone and a pocket unit on the
body, the Visor-Ex 01 glasses weigh
just 180 g - unrivalled in industrial
smart glasses, " says Sebastian Kaul,
product portfolio manager at ECOM
Instruments. With the connected
smartphone, users can seamlessly
switch between tasks during activities
that require additional information
or continuous communication. A
voice-command function also leaves
hands free and adds freedom of
movement, notes Kaul. " The intrinsically
safe Visor-Ex 01 smart glasses
are the first device of their kind to be
certified according to ATEX and IECEx
standards, " he adds. During the development
phase, the glasses underwent
an extensive endurance test
on an offshore oil platform. " With the
help of cameras and image processing,
QR codes from devices and machines
could be read to gain access
to sensor data, such as pump pressure.
Our smart glasses improved the
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MARCH 2023

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Chemical Engineering March 2023

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