While pipeline safety is no game, a new partnership is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create a game-like training tool that enhances pipeline safety training.

Researchers from the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and EnerSys Corporation are collaborating on the development of a multiplayer gaming platform that provides real-world scenarios of pipeline operations. The scenarios provide measurable outcomes of how pipeline operations respond to abnormal and emergency situations in a safe, controlled environment. The project is intended to develop a realistic training system for teams to practice handling hazardous condition response and emergency response.

The platform simulates various pipeline failure scenarios and incorporates those into the training system designed for pipeline operators.

“This utilizes AI as a tool to create a gaming platform where pipeline becomes at the source and all the different scenarios that can impact the pipeline operations response becomes the contributing factor,” said Faisal Khan, director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center.

The latter will provide knowledge and understanding of the pipeline and its safety issues along with creating mathematical models to the project, while EnerSys Corporation will merge industry and facilitate research and the data collection from industry.