Concept Development of a User Interface for Remote Tank Monitoring of IBC Tanks

Abstract

The process industry is being shifted through emerging technological advancements and digitization. This created an opportunity to develop a new remote tank monitoring and inventory management system for mobile plastic tanks, also known as IBC tanks. The main focus of this project was to identify and define user needs and requirements for developing a remote monitoring system for mobile plastic tanks. The user needs would be presented through the development of a theoretical framework for developing a digital monitoring system and a conceptual solution focusing on user experience and human factors. The user needs were identified in the early stages of the project through interview studies, a workshop, benchmarking and opportunity identification. When the user needs and requirements were identified, they were analysed, redefined and mapped out through the analysis methodology and systems theory. The concept generation resulted in a configuration of hardware and software working together to create functionalities that filled the user needs. The hardware unit includes a set of electronic and user interface components that serves the purpose of feeding data to the software while keeping the unit complexity low. The software concept was a user interface design, built to facilitate remote tank monitoring, easy pairing, inventory analysis, inventory management and inventory security. A digital prototype was made in the delivery phase of the project which resulted in a series of visualisations presenting the theoretical framework for developing a digital remote tank monitoring system, which was identified in the development phase.