Utility Pipelines Damage Prevention
Excavations or post digs are not under the direct control of utility operators, yet are the main cause of third-party damage to
underground gas pipelines. Damage due to third-party digging may result in a minor inconvenience or an unthinkable disaster. To date,
P&L E-Communications, LLC (PLE) has worked with U.S. Military Force Protection professionals to develop AVT234© Target Motion Cueing (TMC)
Smart Camera System. AVT234© uses state-of-the-art change detection and automatic object discovery originally developed by scientists at the
University of Rochester and commercialized by engineers at PLE according to criteria in Air Force Force Protection Integrated Base Defense Security
Systems (IBDSS) Capabilities Development Document (CDD).
PLE is developing a system for unattended continuing surveillance
to prevent third party damage to transmission and distribution pipes and right-of-way encroachments at typical utility company facilities using
Electro-Optic / Infrared cameras input to the AVT234©. This work builds on our previous work for an area of 10m by 100m for base perimeters and
does not duplicate any efforts completed or currently underway. Power can be standard 110 drop, power converter, generator, or solar.
Network communications can be existing Internet wireless 802.11 b/g switches or RF radio.
AVT234© deals well with
targets being obscured by other objects, particularly in the presence of non-stationary noise sources such as trees blowing in the wind, lapping
waves on the shore and sun glints on a barren desert for perimeter and border environments, and in the presence of rapid illumination changes
due to clouds moving across the sun. Intruder detection is provided by AVT234© using TMC to perform pixel foreground/background segmentation
while TTM groups coherent foreground pixels over time into traceable targets. Once TTM tracks a consistent target for a minimum frame threshold,
a detection alarm is raised signaling an intruder.
Benefits
- Reliable Detection: Utility pipeline operators have to reliably detect intrusions and
strikes to their pipelines to monitor and prevent encroachments when possible and track
actual strikes for damage investigation after the fact. Knowledge of all near-strikes and
strikes to an operators pipeline is required to reduce intrusions and repair failures.
- Continuous Monitoring: If an encroachment or actual strike occurs to a pipeline AVT234
“sees” it. Should a strike or near-strike occur you will be notified via alarms
to your dispatcher, an email, even a cell phone.
- Accurate Localization: Pipeline operators are notified where a close call or actual
strike is occuring with source location accuracy within + 5 meters, see table below.
- Risk Mitigation: The ability to “see” when activity by contractors or others
is becoming a threat -- in time to stop them – is a key benefit of persistent video
surveillance provided by the AVT234.
- Reduced False Alarms: AVT234 has been independently tested in the field for probability
of detection, false alarm resistance, source location accuracy by U.S. Air Force Force
Protection see table below.
Available as rapidly deployable kit.
Available as rack-mount digital video analytics processor.
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