A computer-vision based power plant monitoring system

A power plant monitoring system is extremely important for ensuring normal operation of the whole power plant as well as initiating alarms to avoid further development of unattended fault within the power generating system. Conventionally, such work is accomplished by a panel meter/human interface arrangement. Intensive manhour requirements and limitations in flexibility are the main drawbacks of such an arrangement. The authors introduce a new concept in system monitoring. The human interface is replaced by a computer vision-based system so that the time-consuming work such as data logging, trend recording and alarm triggering can be carried out by a computer employing the concept of `image understanding´. Human error could be minimised with improved accuracy and operation efficiency