Continuous monitoring of a capacitor bank

We have developed a prototype system for safety assurance of a capacitor bank by combining application-specific and off-the-shelf surveillance technology for remote monitoring. Traditional surveillance technology passively records facility operations, waiting for an event to trigger a physical audit of the collected information. We have implemented a more active approach to remote monitoring and used the Pulsed Field Laboratory as a test bed. We had various sensors continuously collect information about the state of the laboratory and send it to Guardian, a reasoning system developed at LANL. The detection of an anomalous event begins the recording and analysis of the streams of data from the sensors; the system then presents the results to the laboratory personnel in a Web-based multimedia format for immediate interrogation. This facility provides a unique environment for evaluating, developing, and deploying technology that ensures personnel safety and identifies precursor cues to catastrophic equipment failures.