APOS 2.0 - Digital life cycle management of interoperable safety systems

The importance of maintaining a safe, efficient and reliable energy sector has recently become increasingly clear. In this project, we develop solutions to enable the energy sector to improve follow-up of their safety systems by introducing digital solutions that facilitate sharing and exchange of important safety information from design to operation. Through close collaboration with industry and academia, the project will develop and test new digital solutions for functional safety through distinct but closely related pilots that facilitate sharing of information between systems and companies. At the same time, the project will evaluate how people and work processes are affected by the introduction of open digital platforms and solutions. The solutions will give Norwegian industry a competitive advantage and lay the foundation for input to international standards. The project will run over four years. In the first year we will focus on mapping opportunities and challenges by developing and adapting open digital platforms and representations. A main question will be how to facilitate digital design and operation of interoperable security systems while also satisfying central authority and cyber security requirements, established industry practice and referenced standards. The following key business partners participate in the project: 1) safety system suppliers Kongsberg Maritime (Project owner), Siemens Energy and ABB 2) the consulting company Safetec 3) the engineering company Aker Solutions, 4) the operating companies Aker BP, ConocoPhillips, Equinor and Vår Energi who request and implement the solutions, and 5) the research institutions SINTEF (project manager), NTNU and Fraunhofer which contribute with research-based methods and the sharing of knowledge to the industry. The business partners want to invest in technology that can increase the degree of digitalisation and automation in their services.

The importance of maintaining a safe and effective energy sector has become increasingly clear during the last few years. To accomplish this, it is necessary to accelerate the digital transformation and at the same time ensure that the Norwegian energy sector maintains its position as a world leader in health, safety, and environment (HSE). Interoperability, which is the ability of a computer system to talk to and understand another system is a prerequisite for digitalisation. The German Industry 4.0 (I4.0) initiative, has so far concentrated on smarter and more effective manufacturing and production, but the energy sector can now combine the interoperability possibilities offered by I4.0 with the high level of knowledge and experience with safety from the Norwegian Oil and Gas industry to enable a safe and effective energy sector. In this project, we will focus on safety critical systems and how to enable interoperability in the value chain by developing standardised information models, templates, digital twins/AAS and submodels for functional safety. Furthermore, the project will take a holistic approach by adopting concepts and ideas from Industry 5.0 (I5.0) to integrate human-oriented considerations, opportunities, and limitations in the development of digital twins. The results are expected to have relevance for follow-up of other systems and industries, such as green energy systems. Hence knowledge, competence, and technology will be shared across industries. The project will explore I4.0 open platforms applied to safety systems interoperability use cases, while at the same time considering I5.0 human-centric solutions. For this to succeed, covering different axis and perspectives are needed, from design to operation, from field to cloud, and from people to processes, implying that this project will contribute to and require both new or changed products, systems, methods, and processes as well as alternative forms of organisation and competence.