Social media and process control merge using artificial intelligence

Emerson Process adds “tweeting” function to flagship DeltaV so it can reach out to operators. The system will establish friends, compose messages, and interact independently. Exclusive video: Jim Cahill explains new concept, operation.

April 1, 2012

In a bold move that will create an unprecedented fusion of industrial control systems and social media platforms, Emerson Process Management has announced that it is adding a new artificial intelligence capability to its DeltaV platform that will allow the control system to form its own group of Twitter followers and post messages.

Jim Cahill, chief blogger, surface dweller, and head of social media for Emerson Process Management explains, “People play a large role in social media, but we thought, ‘Why just limit it to people when we can get our systems jumping into this action?’ The back and forth, retweeting, and everything that goes on there, so we thought it would be a great idea to take our DeltaV control system and add it to the twittersphere.” He adds that this is only a first step and functionality for Facebook will not be far behind.

As Cahill discusses in the video, the system will identify its human “friends” by determining which operators and people in the plant work the best with it. The system will then determine when and how to reach out to those individuals and begin to send personal messages as a first step to interaction beyond simple process control. More information on aspects of what these messages will contain and obvious security concerns will be forthcoming as the 3Q12 release date approaches.

User acceptance of this new offering remains to be seen. Clearly it isn’t for everyone, but Cahill believes this sort of functionality will be critical as a new generation of operators comes into the workforce for whom social media is a way of life. The video discussion explains the driving forces behind the idea in detail.

www.emersonprocess.com

Peter Welander, pwelander@cfemedia.com