The use of location-based services in maintaining electrical and other networks in developing countries
Standard COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) software will be used in the new data
capturing process proposed, and where appropriate, the field personnel will be trained in
its use. This software is Intergraph’s package called Intelliwhere OnDemand, software
that operates on a standard Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device to location-enable a
mobile workforce. This package will be customised to accommodate the specific
requirements of the data capturing application envisaged. It is planned to deploy the
COMPAQ iPAC Pocket PC PDA as the data capture device itself.
Human Computer Information(HCI)
By suggesting the use of SIS as a way of compensating for the lack of skill and
experience amongst field personnel in developing countries, we bring another significant
challenge to the fore. This is the low level of familiarity with computers amongst field
personnel. In this regard our research is addressing three additional questions:
- How and when should network information be presented to the maintenance teams
on site, given their low levels of computing knowledge and skill?
- To what extent can a mobile computing device, that typically has limitations in
terms of its user interface and data processing capabilities, replace the roles of
maps and paper-based schematics in distribution network maintenance?
- Will the proposed personal digital assistant technology together with wireless
actually improve the productivity of the mobile utility workforce ?
The concept of an “adaptive context” HCI is proposed as an approach to meet some of
theses challenges. The objective behind the concept is to implement a mobile user interface
that presents the user with the correct and necessary information at any location with
minimal user intervention.
The development of mobile computers able to communicate via wireless technology has
brought a completely different perspective and approach on how humans communicate
with computers. Interaction with mobile computers is vastly different as compared to
desktop computers. Desktop computing takes place in a static environment where the
user is presented with a large high-resolution user interface and information is stored
either locally on the computer, or may be accessed via a data network. [Cobb, 2002]
states that “usability” is important for any mobile computing application or device, but it’s
even more important with capability-constrained devices with limited display or input.
Thus usability analysis should encompass any wireless/PDA application project from start
to completion.
In contrast, mobile computing has associated with it specific constraints and restrictions
which result in the design of very different user interfaces. Two of the most important
limitations of mobile computing are:
- heterogeneous environments –e.g. mobile devices operate in environments
containing different mobile communication network infrastructures affecting the
connectivity of the device;
- limited mobile device resources – e.g. the mobile device screen size, processing
power, network bandwidth, battery power, etc., impose constraints on the design
of mobile software applications.
Research work focusing on these paradigms has been carried out over the past decade and
is still continuing. Design and architecture frameworks for tackling these issues when
designing applications for mobile devices have been proposed [Cheverst, 1998] and
prototypes have been built and tested [Davies, 1998].
The topic of “adaptive intelligent user interfaces” in the realm of Human Computer
Interaction [HCI] has been researched in recent years in both mobile and static computing
environments. In mobile computing, the focus has been on the services that adaptive
mobile systems should provide and on adaptive frameworks to assist mobile navigation
systems in adapting to limited resources [Baus, 2001]. Strategies are proposed on how to
maintain effective HCI interaction when various resources become too limited to allow
normal interaction to continue [Cheverst, 2000]. Environment sensing technologies have
been used to develop adaptive user interfaces for ultra-mobile devices such as PDAs,
mobile phones and wearable computers [Schmidt, 1999]. The objective of much of this
work has been to illustrate the application of context-awareness in ultra-mobile
computing. An example is an orientation-sensitive user interface, where a PDA is
enhanced with awareness of its orientation. The field of adaptive user interfaces is vast,
and there are many areas of potential research still to be exploited.
Field Maintenance Information and workflow
In our research we have developed an approach to the presentation of information to the
user of a mobile device, with minimal user input. Our approach is based on an initial
analysis of the information required by a work team member engaged in the maintenance
of electrical and other networks.
Electrical maintenance teams perform diverse tasks, including sectionalising, re-routing,
fault-finding, planned maintenance, etc. The main objectives are to ensure that customers
have constant power supply and that the network operates in a normal and stable mode. A
centralised distribution control centre manages all network-related duties by issuing
operating instructions to the teams whilst on site. The Work Management Centre (WMC)
dispatches the teams to various areas and issues them with the details of the customers
with no power supply.
Circumstances occur when the network experiences disturbances, leading to the
protection systems isolating the affected portion of the network e.g. overloading due to a
lightning strike. This is termed a breakdown. Network stabilisation and fault rectification
have to be performed within a particular timeframe in order to minimise damage to the
network components (transformers, cables etc) and reconnect the affected customers. In
these cases Control Centre operators send the Work Management Center a list of the
affected network points, e.g. the locations of all open circuit breakers. The WMC
dispatches this information to the teams in the affected areas. Planned maintenance of
network components is also performed on pre-arranged schedules. On a specific day,
based on these schedules, the Control Centre issues operation instructions to the work
team to isolate the specific portion of the network for maintenance purposes.
The work team’s tasks are not necessarily performed in a predetermined sequence. Based
on a situation at hand, the team might temporarily postpone a task and perform another
more urgent one. The team might also operate at a location on the network common to a
number of disconnected customers, instead of attending to each customer individually.
The basis for such a decision is detailed information on the network configuration.
When a customer reports a fault, the Customer Service Centre captures specific customer
details including the customer stand number, contact details and description of the
problem e.g. no supply. The information is automatically sent to the Work Management
Centre. At the WMC, a work-order number is generated for each reported fault. This
number is used by the WMC to keep track of the team’s work progress on reported faults.
In a breakdown scenario, the Control Centre employs a FMS (Fault Management System)
to detect whether the circuit breakers have tripped or not. The Control Centre can
electronically open and close the breakers. If a breaker trips after being electronically
closed, the FMS automatically sends the circuit breaker information to the WMC. The
information includes the name and location of the circuit breaker.
The WMC dispatcher allocates a work-order number to a team in the same area as the
customer. The team must initially accept the work order and then proceed to the network
location. After completing a task, the team contacts the WMC and quotes the work-order
number for the completed work at the network location. The dispatcher then updates the
status of the particular work-order number, i.e. the maintenance job for the work-order
number is complete or still in progress.
Underlying concept: The concept of an adaptive context, information self-triggering
HCI is employed to facilitate the development of the user interface for a mobile device.
The concept is tailored from the established concepts of context awareness and triggering
information by context, utilised in previous and on-going research work [Brown, 1998]
[Rodden, 1998].
