A Platform for Data Science and Analytics at the Edge

Abstract

Summary Increased digitalization in industry has brought forth a myriad of applications for data science and analytics over the past decade. As needs for advanced modeling and analytics have grown, this onshore drilling contractor embarked on a journey to centralize data acquisition, aggregation, transmission, and modeling into one platform located on-location. This paper explains how the combination of both data exchange and modeling has allowed for the development of three novel controls applications that are combinations of traditional programming and industrial control logic. This opens doors to make advanced data science modeling, such as machine learning and online learning, available directly to existing rig control systems that do not have these capabilities. The flexibility of this system offers significant opportunity for applying advanced analytics and data science tools at the rig site. Rig control systems are no longer limited by traditional industrial controllers but have the ability to interface with performance applications written in traditional programming languages. Applications running on our edge servers, integrated as input/output to the control systems, removes the limitations of the PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and allows us to "modernize" our control system without having to replace existing PLCs.