What a plant is

A waterworks, a smelter, a substation, a refinery: machines, pipes and thousands of instruments, every reading under a code. What a plant is, and what Auge does with it.

Every instrument in a plant reports under a code. Auge works out what each one means, from the readings and the plant's own paperwork, and says so when it cannot.

A plant is any place that turns one thing into another, at scale.

A waterworks, a smelter, a substation, a refinery, a dairy. Each one is machines joined by pipes, cables and belts, and thousands of instruments measuring them every second. Every reading arrives under a code. What the code means, which machine it sits on and whether it can be trusted is written down somewhere else, if it is written down at all.

A refinery

A refinery

Tens of thousands of instruments on one site. Each one a reading, each reading a code.

Photo: Tylervigen, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
A cooling plant

A cooling plant

Fans, pumps and heat exchangers keeping a building cool. Temperatures, flows and fan speeds, every few seconds.

Photo: Rsparks3, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
A pump in the field

A pump in the field

A transformer, a pump and a meter on a pole: three machines, each reporting under its own code.

Photo: Rsparks3, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
A battery store

A battery store

A container of batteries beside a power plant. Charge, current, voltage and cell temperatures.

Photo: Bp 95, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
A wind farm

A wind farm

Each turbine reports its speed, power and vibration, and each reading arrives under a code.

Photo: rachelalienergy, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
A substation

A substation

Transformers and breakers moving power between grids. Currents, voltages, temperatures and gas pressures.

Photo: Rsparks3, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
Back to the front page

Read next

How it works

A folder of exports, one PC inside the fence, one command. What it reads, what it touches, and what it never does.

Read more

The problem

Every reading is already being taken. What is missing is the sentence that says what each one is, and why that stays solved once it is.

Read more

The mathematics

The estimators and tests the compiler runs, written as they are computed, each scored against an answer we did not write.

Read more