Stonington, CT: MACSEA Ltd. has released DEXTER Agents™ Version 3.3, a software tool that allows companies to build and deploy software agents for machinery health monitoring and predictive maintenance. Software agents automate the bulk of the time-consuming and complex data processing tasks typically associated with condition-based maintenance. The agents acquire real-time machinery sensor data, monitor alarms, detect trends, diagnose equipment faults, and predict impending problems.
Prognostic agents are designed to predict equipment problems at their earliest stage of development. These agents automatically scan historical machinery data to discover degrading performance trends and then use probabilistic neural network reasoning to predict machinery faults associated with those trends. The agents can generally isolate a fault much faster than a human operator, who may be inundated with large amounts of process data to analyze. Prognostic agents estimate remaining useful life, or equivalently time-to-failure, for each predicted equipment fault. These estimates are based on the time available to run the equipment until the initial predicted alarm condition is expected to occur.
By reporting the earliest predicted alarm, the agent provides the operator with the maximum amount of warning time, such that corrective action can be taken prior to actual equipment failure.DEXTER Agents™ allows companies to rapidly deploy software agents without costly software programming. Software agents keep a continuous watch over equipment and process health, detect abnormal conditions, pinpoint developing problems, and alert operators before process interruption can occur. DEXTER Agents™ can monitor sensor data in virtually any machinery application.
Value
Improved reliability, machinery uptime, and production profitability are the goals of every manufacturer, no matter how large or small the operation. The prediction of future equipment faults and remaining useful life can help maintenance staff determine when maintenance should be carried out. By predicting machinery problems before they occur, unexpected breakdowns can be avoided, along with their attendant costs. In the absence of significant degrading trends, decisions to extend equipment overhaul periods can be confidently made, backed by empirical data generated by the prognostic agents. This type of predictive maintenance information leads to improved maintenance planning, cost reductions, and overall plant reliability.
Maintenance and repair decisions can now be tied to actual equipment operating conditions, versus the traditional time-based manufacturer recommendations.
Interoperability
DEXTER Agents™ easily integrates with most process automation and data historian software on the market. This means that existing investments in networks, process automation, and asset management systems are further leveraged with the addition of DEXTER Agents™. Attaching intelligent software agents to monitor and assess process data will add significant value to the plant IT infrastructure that is already in place.
About MACSEA Ltd. MACSEA Ltd. is one of the first companies to offer commercial software agents specifically focused on machinery and process health assessment. Over a decade of research involving artificial neural network models for pattern recognition, control, and machine learning has resulted in some of the most advanced intelligent agent technology on the market for real-time machinery diagnostics and prognostics. The company has been active in the Naval and marine market segments for the past twenty years.
MACSEA has recently shifted its focus to industrial markets, as the commercial demand for profitability and reliability has surged. For More information visit www.DEXTERagents.com
