HP: Sensors May Prevent Repeat Of BP Oil Disaster

Intelligent sensor technology deployed on oil rigs and other drilling equipment could help to prevent a repeat of the environmental diaster caused by a BP oil spill and platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico, a HP engineer has said.

Responding to a question from eWEEK Europe UK at HP’s Executive Energy Conference in Dubai, Peter Hartwell, master engineer at HP labs, said that sensor technology was fundamentally about detecting problems before they escalate.

“The opportunity we have with sensors and sensor networks is to get this opportunity awareness of what is going on before these tragedies happen,” he said.

BP has been struggling to contain a significant oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico since the 20 April when a rig operated by the company suffered a major fire which killed several workers. NASA has deployed planes equipped with sensing equipment to help map and monitor the spill.

NASA Mapping Spill

Hartwell’s comments were made during a presentation on the far-reaching potential of sensor technology, which HP believes will be fundamental to the future of computing. HP Labs’ sensor project is known as Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE).

In reference to the security and disaster prevention aspects of the technology, Hartwell alluded to the value of putting more remote sensors into bridges in the US – many of which are old and of need of repair. In 2007 a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis killing several people. “A highway bridge could say ‘Hey, I need maintenance carried out on me’, before a tragedy occurs,” he said.

Hartwell likened the deployment of sensors on bridges to prevent disasters as similar to the potential in the oil and gas industry. “My analogy of the bridge failure mechanism of the tragedy that we saw there is exactly what you want to do,” he said. “You want to have all these sensors monitoring what is going on in that situation, watching as that situation deteriorates before it’s too late to do something about it.”

HP Labs envisages a future with a trillion sensors connected to provide real-time information for a variety of applications for monitoring oil drilling operations to measuring heat and light in office buildings.

A trillion sensors

The company is already working with oil giant Shell on sensor technology. The companies announced a plan to collaborate on a wireless sensing system to collect seismic data to aid drilling and exploration.

“These advances in technology to discover energy resources could transform the ability to pinpoint abundant new oil and gas reserves,” said Joe Eazor, senior vice president and general manager, HP Enterprise Services, at the time. “HP is uniquely positioned to offer Shell a complete sensor system that delivers innovation to address key technical seismic challenges.”

According to Hartwell, HP’s expertise to develop sensors is similar to technology already used in its printer cartridges. “The actual node technology is something we are working on in our image and printing group – it’s fundamentally the same technology we use to build ink-jet print heads,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many cartridges we have made but it’s not a quite a trillion, but we understand the volume challenges of getting these devices into the environment.”