Going digital while remaining analogue Daily inspections of plants, IoT & AI support

According to the Asahi Shimbun, daily inspections of oil refining and chemical synthesis plants are manpower intensive. NBK Marketing (Tokyo), based in Seki City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, is working on a service that enables remote monitoring using IoT cameras connected to the internet and AI, in an attempt to reduce the burden by digitising the work. The aim is to ‘free people from simple labour’.
Until now, the cost of digitising plants has been a bottleneck, as it involves large-scale construction work. Even replacing analogue gauges with digital smart gauges requires power supply, wiring and installation work, and plant operation may have to be stopped for the duration of the work.
This is why the company turned its attention to a cloud service using IoT cameras. Figures displayed by analogue gauges, such as the remaining gas tank volume or flow rate in pipes, are captured by an IoT camera and the image is transmitted, which is then read by AI and converted into a numerical value. The system allows personnel to carry out routine inspections simply by checking the images and numerical data on a PC or smartphone.
The system was developed by LiLz Gauge, a venture company based in Ginowan City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Mr Okamoto sympathised with the company's concept of ‘making on-site work easier by fusing machine learning and IoT technologies’, which led to NBK Marketing coming forward as a sales agent, and he has been in charge of sales since the initial launch in July 2020.
To date, 5,300 cameras have been installed at 400 business sites across the country in Japan. Major companies such as the Mitsubishi Chemical Group and Takara Shuzo have also introduced the system.

https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASS9R3DBZS9RONFB00KM.html