Abstract
As Oil and Gas operators look to make their Drilling Operations more safe, reliable, and efficient, they now have the option of leveraging Edge Analytics for solving diverse technical, human, and business challenges experienced at a rig site. Reliable and high-speed data connectivity is a major challenge at rig sites as most drilling operations are conducted in remote locations; therefore, Edge Analytics based solutions provide operators with the opportunity to deploy state-of-the-art technologies such as Robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Machine Vision and real-time Artificial Intelligence applications. However, with limited data connectivity options, and restriction of hosting confidential data on cloud platforms, the traditional cloud based Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) architectures are not feasible for many global operators.
In this paper we will discuss the various challenges and opportunities for deploying Edge Analytics at rig sites and investigate variations of traditional IIoT architectures that can be adapted to remote Drilling Operations. Specifically, we will discuss non-cloud-based architectures and applications that can be deployed and managed over a hybrid communication architecture that is not dependent on a cloud platform.
