Pictures of the Future Spring 2005
Remote Services – Machines and Appliances
Data Mining Machines
Remote services aren’t only used to monitor devices and machines; in some cases, they can also repair equipment. Furthermore, information from around-the-clock monitoring helps Siemens engineers to more effectively analyze problems and optimize their service response.
Oil sand extraction in Canada. Huge excavators work around the clock, even in bitter cold. Thanks to a comprehensive remote maintenance system, their availability rate is 98 %
Around the clock, electrically powered excavators sink huge shovels into the earth at Fort McMurray. Here in the Canadian province of Alberta, where the largest known oil sand deposits on earth are found, the machines search for oil-bearing sand—even in the dead of winter. "Thanks to remote maintenance services, we achieve a 98 % availability level," says Bob Rogers, who oversees the fleet of excavators for the Albian Sands Energy company.
This success is a result of a carefully planned maintenance and monitoring strategy—and of Albian Sands’ partnership with Siemens. Siras (Siemens Remote Access System), a computer-based data-collection tool from Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S), provides regular status overviews of the excavator control systems. Each excavator has an on-board recording system for its drive and control data. The data flows from the machines to the mining headquarters via a wireless Internet connection. If an error message appears, on-site teams can immediately respond. The advantage of this process is that all the information needed for optimal machine performance is recorded online by Siras and is instantly available. Soon, engineers will also be able to use a keyboard and mouse to access data on processes and electrical or mechanical systems and, if necessary, initiate a reconfiguration from their desks.
Remote services like this are becoming increasingly important for efficient operation of machines and plants. This applies to I&S as well as to other Siemens units that offer maintenance services for machine tools, household appliances, medical equipment and cell phones.
For instance, cell phone manufacturers and mobile phone companies will soon be able to monitor and update the software in users’ handsets via a remote call. Calinel Pasteanu, Director of Software Technology at Siemens Communications, expects this will become common practice in two years. "The protocols needed for this are already available," says Pasteanu. In order to be capable of receiving upgrades, a cell phone must incorporate software that manages its internal data structures and device characteristics for the update service and establishes the connection to a service provider. "There are prototypes for this, but we don’t have any real end-to-end support yet," explains Pasteanu.
Whereas a few years ago the concern was simply getting any reliable maintenance-related measurements at all for devices and systems, today the technology is far more advanced. "A good remote service system doesn’t just react to error notifications; it also constantly analyzes the behavior of systems and compares it with similar cases, so that major problems don’t occur in the first place," says Dr. Erich Niedermayr, a remote maintenance expert at Siemens Corporate Technology who heads a team that’s developing a comprehensive platform for remote maintenance services (see Trends). "The trend is for each device and machine that requires high-quality service to have its own Web services that provide access to important status information and operational data," he says.
An expert fine tunes a machine tool through remote analysis of its axle dynamics
Built-in Flight Recorders. A separate Web page that depicts all the parameters essential for a machine’s operations with almost no delay—that’s also the dream of Knut Lagies, who is managing director of ePS & RTS Automation Software GmbH, a subsidiary of Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D). Lagies is convinced that an Internet-enabled service environment can cut expensive on-site visits by specialists. "Our customers can correct many control settings through the ePS service center,” says Lagies. Such adjustments not only can fix problems; they may also prevent them from occurring in the first place.
Like a flight data recorder, the software registers every movement of a machine or system, creating a seamless overview of its status and revealing any flaws. For example, sensors can record the circular motion of a twin-axle machine tool, while software identifies the slightest deviations from optimal motion. The data, which is transmitted to the ePS service center, along with other measurements, is automatically checked to determine if it falls within an established range of tolerances and to identify possible causes of deviation. "If there’s any doubt, we mobilize experts who assess what sort of defect may be on the horizon," says Lagies.
One decisive advantage over earlier maintenance strategies is the additional information offered by online diagnostic data. Experts can identify an impending defect simply from inconspicuous deviations in the radial run-out of a drive shaft. Usually, the service teams can even determine when the imbalance of the shaft would lead to a breakdown. To accomplish this, they compare the mea-surements with defect development data for similar cases, or retrieve the machine’s maintenance history from a database.
Remote Control Home
Whether it’s washing machines, stoves, ventilation hoods or blinds—Siemens is making the home a more convenient place. The cordless phone is to be the central user interface for controlling this equipment. And even from outside the house, essential functions can be monitored via SMS or by calling the home phone and using a voice menu or tone dialing. By late 2005, products and subsystems for the intelligent home are to be marketed under the name Gigaset Home Control. The technological basis for this is a DECT radio module from Siemens Communications that can be integrated into existing appliances. Beginning this autumn, the serve@home systems from Siemens electrical appliances, which are already on the market, as well as GAMMA wave, an installation technology from Siemens Automation and Drives, will be linked. External partners will supply compatible solutions for entrance intercoms, alarm systems and blinds. All new Siemens household appliances are being produced with networking software and interfaces. They can be operated with a tablet PC. An information module with a display that plugs into an electrical outlet can show the machines’ status. A user in the living room, for instance, could see if the freezer door in the cellar has been left open.
In principle, any authorized user can operate the service platform from any PC with Internet access. Direct access to the machine is blocked, though. "We receive only diagnostic data," says Lagies. To unblock access to the machine, allowing remote access to programmable controls, contracting service organizations and the operator must give their go-ahead. This guarantees data privacy and prevents manipulation. One general rule is that the data is encrypted before it travels from a machine to Siemens’ servers, and service staff must identify themselves with passwords before the gateway to the platform can open for them. Access rights to the services and data, as well as to administrative operations and machines are in the hands of the manufacturers and users.
Agents in Hospitals. Security is also a paramount concern in the area of remote service for medical equipment. Siemens Medical Solutions (Med) offers hospitals and doctors’ offices a range of services via data lines. Siemens Remote Service (SRS) was developed by Med and implemented in the unit’s own Service Center.
The Guardian program developed by Med guarantees very fast reaction and repair times. Via remote monitoring, for example, specialists can keep an eye on all the equipment in a cardiac catheter lab around the clock and resolve many problems reported by the machines. The machines send status reports to the Service Center without having any impact on hospital operations. Guardian uses software agents to put maintenance-related status information regarding systems on monitors in near real time. By using preset filtering functions, these agents constantly collect information from machines and forward it. "This makes it possible for us to identify defects at an early stage, which in turn allows us to carry out repairs before there can be any interruption of clinical operations," explains Gerald Bechtold, head of the System Management Center in Erlangen.
Siemens’ Guardian software allows machines like this computer tomographic scanner to transmit reports to a remote center for continuous, around-the-clock monitoring
Before technicians visit a site, they’ve already used the remote diagnostics system to consult all the system information needed to repair a problem. "SRS goes far beyond traditional maintenance service," reports Dr. Wolfgang Heimsch, who heads Customer Services at Siemens Medical Solutions. "In the future, we will use a central platform to make benchmark improvements in our customers’ processes, and thus their productivity, while also tapping into entirely new fields of business," says Heimsch. Pilot tests are currently being carried out on the operation of clinical networks and on projects for managing work flows.
Fix it With a Cell Phone
A small box collects data, such as the fill levels and temperatures of storage tanks at a chemical plant near Vienna, and sends the data at regular intervals to a central Web server via GPRS. A service specialist can connect to the server via PC or cell phone and check operational values. In emergencies, the box even seizes the initiative itself. If the values indicate a defect, it calls the mobile phone of the expert in charge within seconds. The service—Mobile Control over IP (MCoIP)—was conceived and realized by the Mobile Communications Systems (MCS) department at PSE, Siemens’ Austrian software subsidiary. "It’s a very compact hardware and software solution that also allows access via cell phone through a graphical user interface,” explains project manager Wolfgang Fröhlich. Soon, developers will implement MCoIP’s next level of functionality. At that point, authorized service personnel will be able to send control signals or target values to the box via cell phone, allowing them to react quickly if a malfunction arises or even to open a valve or switch on an additional pump, for example.
The value of remote monitoring becomes clearer every day. At a hospital at the University of Tübingen in Germany, for instance, a computer tomograph recently began slowing down. Technicians at the Siemens Service Center identified a problem with the computer that calculates recorded images. They immediately informed Andrea Ganter, the technical supervisor of the hospital’s Radiological Information System. "At that point, we knew our tomograph would probably break down in about two days," explains Ganter. But that was a big enough window of opportunity for rescheduling patient appointments and finding time for repairs. "Before we had remote monitoring, an event like that would have resulted in an equipment outage lasting one and a half days," says Ganter. "But this time, the tomograph was up and running again after only four hours of repairs."
Andreas Beuthner