Oct 05, 2023 • By Lisa Villanueva

Nuclearn recently released version 1.8 of its analytics and automation platform, bringing major upgrades like neural search for intuitive queries, configurable automation routines, expanded analytics outputs, and enhanced ETL data integration. Together these features, some of them AI-driven, aim to optimize workflows and performance.

Neural Search

The neural search upgrade allows searching based on intent rather than keywords, even with ambiguous queries. Neural algorithms understand semantics, context, synonyms, and data formats. This saves time compared to traditional keyword searches, and provides significant advantages when context-sensitive information retrieval is crucial.

Some of the benefits of neural search include:
Precision of Search Results: Traditional keyword-based searches often yield an overwhelming number of irrelevant results, making it difficult for plant personnel to find the specific information they need. Neural search engines deliver results with ranked relevance. This means results are not just based on keyword match but on the basis of how closely the content of the document matches the intent of the search query.  

Contextual Understanding: Boolean queries, which are typically used in traditional search engines, lack the ability to understand the contextual nuances of complex technical language often found in engineering and compliance documentation. Neural search algorithms have a kind of “semantic understanding” that can understand the context behind a query, providing more relevant results. In addition, Neural search understands synonyms and related terms, crucial when dealing with the specialized lexicon in nuclear, thus making searches more robust.

Multiple Data Formats: Nuclear plants often store data in different formats, such as PDFs, Word documents, sensor logs, and older, legacy systems. A neural search engine can be trained to understand and index different types of data, providing a unified search experience across multiple data formats. 

Selective Classification for Unmatched Automation Accuracy

AutoCAP Screener also saw major improvements in v1.8. You can now set desired overall accuracy levels for automation templates. The Nuclearn platform then controls the confidence thresholds using a statistical technique called “selective classification” that enables theoretically guaranteed risk controls. This enables the system to ensure it operates above a user-defined automation accuracy level.

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With selective classification, plants can improve automation rates and efficiency without compromising the quality of critical decisions. Risk is minimized by abstaining from acting in uncertain cases. The outcome is automation that consistently aligns with nuclear-grade precision and trustworthiness. By giving you accuracy configuration control, we ensure our AI technology conforms to your reliability needs. 

Additionally, multiple quality of life enhancements were added to the AutoCAP audit pages. Users can now sort the audit page results, add filters, integrate PowerBI dashboards with audit results, and even export the automation results to csv. These enhancements make it easier and more flexible for users to assess, evaluate, and monitor the automation system.

Analytics & Reporting Enhancements

On the analytics front, our customers wanted more customizations. v1.8 answers their request with the ability to upload their own custom report templates. In addition, customers can change date aggregations in reports to tailor the visualizations for specific audiences and uses. Enhanced dataset filtering and exporting also allows sending analyzed data to PowerBI or Excel for further manipulation or presentation.

Buckets

Editing analytics buckets is now more flexible too, with overwrite and save-as options. We added the ability to exclude and filter buckets from the visualization more easily and make changes to existing buckets, including their name.  

Data Integration

Behind the scenes, ETL workflows (meaning “extract, transform, load” data) were upgraded to more seamlessly ingest plant data into the Nuclearn platform. Users can now schedule recurring ETL jobs and share workflows between sites. With smooth data onboarding, you can focus your time on analytics and automation rather than manually uploading data. 

With advanced search, configurable automation, expanded analytics, and optimized data integration in v1.8, the Nuclearn Platform is better equipped to drive operational optimization using AI-powered technology. This release highlights Nuclearn’s commitment to meaningful innovation that solves real-world needs.