Key benefits

• Process 50 hours of data in less than 2 hours
• Faster data processing throughout your project through fewer manual tasks
• Better utilisation of your data processing staff’s time and competences for manual input, trouble shooting and quality control, rather than doing repetitive tasks

Increasing amount of data processed in less time

The software product Workflow Manager – Server is an optional extra that can be applied to functions in NaviEdit Pro and NaviModel Producer (through special versions of NaviEdit and NaviModel that run without a user interface are made available together with the Workflow Manager). The tool is also able to activate third-party scripts and tools.

The Workflow Manager tool will improve your data processing efficiency as:

• Repetitive tasks are automated
• Data processing staff can focus on errors, interpretations and quality control
• Tasks are executed in parallel, that is, the full power of the computer is used
• Many features normally carried out in NaviEdit and NaviModel are not only automated but have also been performance optimised for use with the Workflow Manager

The result is a powerful cocktail of high-speed data processing features.

Application examples

• AUV/USV operations, where data is recovered at the end of each mission. This is the scenario where the Workflow Manager – Server variant and its ability to process hundreds of steps in parallel shows its real potential.
• Pipeline/cable route inspections (in combination with NaviSuite Nardoa software), where sonar, subsea laser, images and video data are acquired during ROV operations. The Workflow Manager can automate much of the processing tasks, leaving more time for the data processer to perform manual eventing and quality control.

How it works

You define the sequence of processing steps. With the setups we have seen so far, the task of defining your workflow is minimal – although it often gives you food for thought as to how you can optimise the way you work.

There are many types of steps available. A few examples are:

• Loading files, including waiting for files to become available
• Applying tide, SVP, etc
• Cleaning data in NaviModel
• Checking a number of quality control parameters such as density, gaps, noise levels, TVU, etc
• Correcting seabed height level across multiple surveys, etc
• Exporting data in different formats

When processing data, the Workflow Manager will visually show the operator which steps are being performed and their status by icons:

• Current steps (blue): The currently running step(s) that are executed in parallel. You can define how many parallel tasks the Workflow Manager should use to ensure that it matches the capacity of your computer.
• Completed (green): The step has been completed successfully.
• Error (red): When an error is encountered, the processing of the specific step stops, and the operator can decide what to do by investigating the error in NaviEdit/NaviModel, manually change the data as necessary, and restart the automatic processing from a given step.
• User action (yellow): The tool can be set up to stop at a given point when carrying out a specific task. This is useful for processing steps that require manual quality control or steps that require operator-provided data or interpretation before the task can continue.

All processing steps are logged. This means that the Workflow Manager provides a fully detailed survey log for later use, showing what was done by an operator or the tool and with what result.

Keeping an eye of processing performance optimisations

The Workflow Manager has a built-in performance measurement tool that measures the time spent on each processing step, so it is very easy to see how much time each part of the workflow takes, and consequently where it is worth optimising.