Tuesday, October 22, 2013

No. 793: Using big data for the management and maintenance of infrastructure is spreading (October 22, 2013)

Technology:
Fujitsu and Metawater will jointly start the business that utilizes big data for the management and maintenance of water infrastructure like water purification plant by the end of 2014. Metawater will collect data and Fujitsu will analyze them. Metawater will collect photos, sounds, and comments of workers that local governments across the country obtain in the inspection of pumps and water pipes. Fujitsu will analyze them to work out the optimal management method for lower maintenance cost. It will start to provide local governments with the cloud service using tablet PCs within this month. Workers will input comments, photos, and motor sounds into their tablet PCs while they are inspecting the water infrastructure.

Data collected by the workers will be combined with information collected by the sensors installed on the pumps and purifying facilities. A water purification plant will be reproduced in the virtual space to specify dickey parts and sections. It is estimated that a local government with a population between 100,000 and 200,000 people needs about 100 million yen per year for the management and maintenance of water infrastructure. The system to be developed by the two companies is expected to halve the cost to 50 million yen per year

Chugoku Electric Power Plant introduced the "malfunction prediction system for large plant" developed by NEC to one of its nuclear power plants on a trial basis. The system analyzes a huge amount of data collected from the sensors installed in the plant and automatically defines the normal operation, and informs abnormality as soon as it finds an operation different from the normal operation. NTT Data commercialized a system to utilize data obtained from multiple sensors installed on the bridge for repair work with a view to lengthening the life of a bridge.

Big data are now used mostly for promotional activities in marketing, but utilizing them for the management and maintenance of infrastructure is spreading.   
 
Fujitsu's approach to big data
 

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