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Equity Research

The Innovative Software & Research (ISR) team is dedicated to improving industrial asset management through research, exploration, and advanced technology solutions. With a focus on explainable AI and automated decision-making, this team is continually advancing Equity Software capabilities.

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Solving Tomorrow’s Complex Engineering Challenges

The Equity Research team is solving the industry challenges of the future by incorporating innovative explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) and financial-based, automated decision-making capabilities into Equity Software’s cloud-based software. These innovations are designed to help aging energy industries prioritize inspection and maintenance activities to save money, reduce risk, increase safety, and reduce failures.

The team is pushing the boundaries of conventional asset lifecycle management by leveraging next-generation XAI. XAI overcomes the limitations of traditional pure data analysis-based AI by properly blending expert knowledge, inspection findings, maintenance data, and field observations.

Benefits

  • Optimize inspection & maintenance activities to reduce lifecycle costs
  • Improve operational reliability
  • Reduce risk of aging infrastructure
  • Make informed and computer-aided engineering decisions
  • Meet or exceed jurisdictional requirements

Innovative Research Grants

Since its inception in 2010, Equity Research has received multiple Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to leverage AI Bayesian Network technology to optimize lifecycle decision strategies and reduce asset management costs.

  • High-Performance Computing (HPC): Develop HPC for the design of industrial trade tools for aging energy assets. This project instigated BENGI development.
  • Bayesian Engine for Insights (BENGI): Use AI and machine learning to improve financial lifecycle decision-making strategies. BENGI will revolutionize engineering analysis by applying intelligent decision-making capabilities to all Equity software and technology.
  • Pipeline Integrity Management: Prevent unexpected failures in piping systems by blending inspection data with expert knowledge, probability of failure, and financial-based consequence analysis to accurately predict corrosion rates.
  • Finite Element Analysis (FEA): Automate complex dent analysis to reduce time and overall project costs. DentFEA is a cutting-edge tool that automates the calculation of damage and fatigue life.

BENGI: Intelligent Automated Decision-Making

AI is often thought of as a black box. These smart machines or programs are designed to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence; however, traditional AI sometimes falls short because it lacks human reasoning, knowledge of engineering fundamentals, and can often deliver false positives or other misclassifications.

BENGI is a next-generation XAI technology that overcomes the shortcomings of traditional AI by incorporating all historical and future knowledge into a single decision-making system. This Bayesian AI technology will be applicable to all aging equipment affected by pitting, weld defects, crack-like flaws, environmentally accelerated crack growth, and various other damage mechanisms. ISR is developing a suite of practical decision-making and lifecycle optimization tools, utilizing extreme scale Bayesian networks with a high-dimensional tensor algorithm design.

What’s Next?

We are now in Phase 2 of the DOE research grant. During this phase, we will extend BENGI to improve financial-based lifecycle decision-making for piping reliability, and then expand the technology to all aging assets. We will deliver a market-ready technology that’s equipped to tackle the industry’s most demanding problems. In addition, BENGI will power the computing framework for all new Equity software and technology.

Handle the Complexities of Dent Analysis with Ease

Pipeline integrity goes beyond preventing incidents—it’s about ensuring the operational reliability of critical infrastructure. The API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 Level 3 assessment for dents involves a complex, iterative process. That’s where DentFEA comes in as a cutting-edge, cloud-native tool specifically engineered to tackle one of the pipeline industry’s most challenging issues: dent analysis. Dents in pipelines, caused by external impacts or natural forces, can compromise the structural integrity of these assets. Assessing these dents accurately and efficiently is essential for maintaining safety and compliance. This functionality will be available to PlantManager SAGE subscribers in 2025.

Contact Equity for More Info

Our Software Experts

The groundwork for Equity Software began more than 30 years ago with the initial development of SagePlusTM. Over the years, Equity Software has continued to introduce industry-leading innovations, including SagePlus, API RBI, eec, and damage mechanism software. ​

We’ve integrated these advancements into the PlantManager 6.0 platform, embracing the future of cloud-native solutions. Our ongoing commitment to innovation and collaboration continues to drive our mission in advancing industrial asset management and technology.​

  • Pioneered development of RBI and FFS software​
  • Integrated API and ASME codes and standards into all software​
  • Used by Equity’s consulting engineers for FFS, RBI, damage mechanism reviews, and other asset lifecycle management projects​
Our Team