The objective of this project is to improve the manageability and the controlabilty of complex industrial processes by use of the mentioned Interfaces. These Techniques can reproduce information on different abstraction levels. In the first phase of the project, several interfaces based on the techniques described, where developed by application of the industrial process of a chemical destillation column. In the still running second project phase experiments will be performed to evaluate and test the interfaces developed. The centralised control rooms of large industrial plants have separated people from the processes they should control.
Perception is restricted mainly to the visual sense.
Only telephone or radio links provide narrow-band voice communication with maintenance personnel down in the plant. Multimedia equipment can perceptionally bring back the operator into the plant while bodily keeping him in the comfortable and safe control room. This involves video and audio transmission from process components as well as sights and sounds artificially generated from measurements. Groupware systems support interaction between operators, engineers, and managers in different locations. With support from the German government, the state of Hessen, and industrial companies, we started to establish an Experimental Multimedia Process Control Room.