Remotely – Monitored Anti-Pipeline Vandalization Detection Expert Systema

Abstract

Vandalizing and bunkering of pipelines transporting crude oil and its refined products from one point to another across Nigeria has become a menace on the increase especially in the oil rich Niger Delta region with over 400,000 barrels of crude oil lost daily. Distractions caused by prevalent banditry, aftermaths of COVID-19 pandemic, herdsmen attacks and pervading economic woes as inflation continues unabated for decades now have prevented both security operatives and government from effectively checkmating pipeline vandalisations. Enactment of anti-pipeline vandalisation laws and the grossly inadequate activities of law enforcement agents and security operatives, had failed woefully. Consequently, lots of lives had been lost as a result of clashes of interest and increased use of sophisticated weapons by the nefarious men of the underworld responsible for pipeline vandalisation. It has becoming more intimidating for law enforcement agents to combat these vandals. This study developed and recommended adoption and use of embedded remotely monitored anti-pipeline vandalisation system. A prototype which was built using C language to code functions into its micro-controller sensors demonstrates capability of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to remotely monitor, detect and report pipeline vandalisation activities with little or no loss of lives. The prototype when tested, successfully monitored, detected and reported pipeline vandalisation within 15M radius of the control base. This implies that during implementation the range or radius only needs to be scaled up to desired distance around the control base(s).