INTRODUCING AUTOMATION AND AI TO ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION PROJECTS
We live in an era where everything that is repetitive, redundant or subject to human error is being automated. Some industries embrace new advances in automation technology; while others go kicking and screaming into the future. The environmental remediation business falls into the latter category.
My quest to bring automation technology to the environmental industry stems from the sheer number of human errors that inevitably occur when large amounts of data are accumulated and processed. By automating error prone processes, we can eliminate the opportunity for mistakes to occur in the first place. A bonus side effect of using automation technology to eliminate errors is that data processing occurs at vastly increased speeds. Bringing AI into the mix is just plain cool!
Lots of Data = Lots of Mistakes
In the environmental business we deal with vast amounts of analytical data. The data has to be organized by sample date, location and chemical identification. The data must be processed, compared to regulatory standards, summarized, added to previous data sets, used in calculations and statistical analyses, plotted on maps and contoured and, finally, organized into a final report. A data entry error made during any point in processing can have a lasting and costly impact on the environmental investigation. See The Top 5 Environmental Mistakes and How New Technology Can Prevent Those Mistakes.
This is the Way We Have Always Done It
Face it, no one likes change. Change is hard. However, the most expensive sentence we can utter is, “We do it this way because this is the way we have always done it.”
In this particular case, the real hard part of change is how environmental consultants bill their clients. The industry standard has always been to charge for services based upon Time and Materials (T & M). Consequently, consultants live and die by how many hours they can bill their clients for a project. If automation reduces the number of billable hours, consultants lose money. However, a simple change of the business model from T & M to task-based billing could leverage technology to significantly increase consultant margins by reducing the time needed to complete a report while keeping the payment fixed.
Artificial Intelligence
The biggest drawback to automation is the inability to customize input and output to match every circumstance. Since no two environmental projects are ever the same, then no two environmental reports could ever be the same. One could conclude that since nothing is ever the same, only a human can make the necessary decisions and modifications to create a proper report.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are a constantly evolving wave of the future working to turn computers into more creative data processors. AI technology recognizes user modifications to automated outputs and then takes those changes into account when generating the next automatic output. This means that your solutions grow and change so long as you guide it to the right answer early on. In essence, the machine learns from previous experience and applies that knowledge to improve future automated output.
Environmental Data Management and Automation Technology Today
With OptaHub, the first step we accomplished was to create algorithms to enable our platform to follow the same logic a human would use to process data, analyze the results and automatically create a summary report. From there we set out to develop the functionality for the user to go back and edit the automated product so they were not stuck with the computer’s output. We are now in an ongoing phase of development to add in AI technology that can learn from those modifications and apply the changes to future automated reports, slowly allowing the computer to learn from the end user. We have already successfully incorporated AI functionality into our mapping specifications and are currently working to expand capabilities across the platform!
Real-time Telemetry Input
As an answer to market demand we are now working on bringing real-time telemetry data into our platform so you can get a full, in the moment picture of your sites. This suite of remote hardware will allow you to integrate all of your field measurement devices with the OptaHub platform, monitor incoming data and generate reports based on that data. The telemetry product will enable you to leverage the platform not only for historical and long-term trend analysis but also for short term, on the spot analysis giving you a true full scope picture of your environmental projects.
If you would like to learn more about our features, contact us at info@optahub.com.
