Emerson Adds AI Agents to Ovation for Faster Troubleshooting

Emerson is expanding its Ovation process automation portfolio with AI-powered tools designed to help operators and maintenance teams identify problems faster and keep critical systems running. The upcoming Ovation 4.0 release adds specialized AI agents for sequence troubleshooting, alarm analysis, root cause identification, predictive maintenance, and control-loop monitoring. By continuously analyzing process data and providing context-aware recommendations, the new capabilities aim to reduce troubleshooting time, improve maintenance decisions, and increase uptime across process industries.

An operator using the Ovation portfolio for process automation. Image used courtesy of Emerson

Reducing Troubleshooting Complexity

Today’s automated systems are very complex, and when equipment breaks down, the troubleshooting process can be time-consuming. In the world of process automation, such as water treatment plants, downtime can mean people go without clean drinking water. Emerson, a global supplier of automation solutions, has announced the release of AI expansions for its Ovation software portfolio. The AI agents promise to assist operators and maintenance staff with sequence troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and predictive maintenance.

An Oil and Gas plant that uses process automation to generate energy media. Image used courtesy of Unsplash

Ovation Software Portfolio

The Ovation software suite is a collection of software designed for process automation such as wastewater treatment plants, oil and gas plants, and energy production facilities. The portfolio consists of software for control systems, safety instrumented systems, SCADA / HMI, digital twins, Hydro Governors, and cybersecurity. The Ovation 4.0 release is an advancement of the Ovation portfolio and features scalable, future-proof functions such as cloud management, AI guidance, and grid edge management.

AI Additions To Ovation 4.0

The latest additions to the Ovation 4.0 software suite, set to release this Fall, include many AI features that are geared toward predictive maintenance and operator troubleshooting.

Sequence Insight Agent: The sequence of control logic drives events in automation, and when it gets stuck, production comes to a grinding halt. The Sequence Insight Agent uses historical data and context-aware prompts to inform operators and maintenance staff why the sequence is stopped.

Alarm Insight Agent: Alarm descriptions are designed to help diagnose issues when they arise, but sometimes the problem is too complex, and multiple alarms may appear at the same time. The Alarm Insight Agent will summarize a flood of alarms and identify critical alarms over superficial ones, as well as suggest actions to alleviate the issue.

Predictive Maintenance: A learning tool that suggests regular maintenance schedules, detects degrading equipment, and prioritizes maintenance tasks.

Root Cause Agent: Finding the root cause of an issue can be overwhelming; the root cause agent analyzes processes and correlates alarms to determine a root cause, enabling maintenance teams to diagnose issues faster and more accurately.

Loop Performance Monitor Agent: Poor-performing control loops can cause excessive processing power, inefficient motion profiles, and excessive memory allocation. The loop performance agent constantly monitors control loops and will recommend parameter settings to alleviate oscillations, deadbands, and inefficient tuning.

Wastewater treatment plant that uses SCADA and Edge computing systems. Image used courtesy of Unsplash

AI Monitoring The Process

The Ovation 4.0 AI-enabled guidance monitors the process and suggests changes for maintenance and troubleshooting. This feature is designed to help teams recover from issues or prevent problems faster, resulting in a more efficient system that has more uptime. The AI guidance agents can do something that humans cannot: constantly monitor process parameters, analyze processes, and process data in seconds for root cause analysis and predictive maintenance. With Ovation 4.0 AI guidance enabled, processing plants can create their product more efficiently and with less downtime, all while using a single software portfolio for the control system, SCADA, and cloud management tools.