Digital subsurface

Explore: TELLUS Share and TELLUS Lab

Officially kicked-off in March 2021, the TELLUS Share community is run as a research and innovation consortium, entirely dedicated to the digital transformation of subsurface activities.

TELLUS Share provides members with a framework to address a wide range of use cases, to share questions and experience between companies interested in the susburface, and to co-build a common roadmap in terms of digital transformation.

Concretely, a yearly subscription of 25 000 euros corresponds to the following deliverables:

 Numerous technical items (e.g. scientific reports, documented codes…) from the entire portfolio of demonstrators

 A shared monitoring of academic articles, technologies on the market, open-source projects, training resources and events organized worldwide and concerning the digital transformation of subsurface activities

 Several workshops and seminars per year, composed of technical presentations, demonstrations of prototypes, feedbacks on projects, and ideation sessions guided by the operational needs of the member companies

 Support and advice from IFPEN experts in bilateral short projects (e.g. proof of concept, "quick win", digitalization opportunity analysis, co-supervision of interns…)

The community already includes several Oil & Gas companies of different sizes, as well as key players in subsurface storage.

In addition, companies can deepen a use case in a bilateral mode using the tailor-made TELLUS Lab offer. With this offer, they can benefit from IFPEN experts for R&D services or collaborations. The scope of work and budget for such projects are defined and adjusted on a case-by-case basis with the client company. 
Examples: validation of methodologies on proprietary data, customization and deployment of an operational prototype...

A sample of recent projects

○ Customization and support in the deployment of prototypes to accelerate geoscience data mining, for an Oil & Gas supermajor

○ Development of a toolbox for predictive mapping and decision analysis, for an Oil & Gas supermajor

○ Development and validation of data-driven methodologies to monitor on-site operations, for a subsurface storage company

○ Implementation of Deep Learning approaches for chemical properties estimations from rock samples pictures and appraisal on proprietary data, for a subsurface storage agency 

Some TELLUS projects were presented at the « EAGE Digital » conference in March 2022

• [Bouziat et al.] Assisted interpretation of thin sections and core samples with Deep Learning workflows. 
• [Cokelaer et al.] Interactive management of geoscience knowledge with open-source frameworks: practical appraisal in a subsurface exploration context.
• [Lebrun et al.] Advanced Geothermal prospectivity mapping with Machine Learning using Multi-model Regression and Geology-dependent Multicriteria-Decision Analysis

Explore: SELENA et RockNet® 

The SELENA initiative aims to provide innovative technological tools to players involved in geoscience communication to the public. 

SELENA is supported by two major institutions in education and participatory science: l’UNESCO and the National Museum of Natural History  (MNHN). 

The first project launched in this context is the development of the RockNet® application. It is a mobile application using artificial intelligence to promote the concept of geodiversity to a wide audience. Concretely, users can photograph the rocks of their environment and a Deep Learning model analyzes these photos to provide educational information about geology and the natural resources. RockNet® is inspired by the success of its famous cousin Pl@ntNet and should be available for download from the most known app stores in 2023. 

Another project is the use of advanced web technologies, virtual reality and augmented reality to highlight our geoheritage. A demonstrator was notably produced for the Annot’s sandstone outcrops in the Alps, well known for their educational value in understanding turbidity systems or “subsea avalanches”. A tour of the geosite, both interactive and completely immersive, was designed from photogrammetric acquisitions and integrated into a portable virtual reality system. This type of project is very complementary to the Vigie-Terre run by the MNHN to identify new geosites.

RockNet was presented at the European Geosciences Union’s annual conference in 2021:

• [Bouziat et al.] Combining citizen science and artificial intelligence to facilitate geology outreach and capture geodiversity: prospects from the RockNet project. 

How geoscience education can benefit from digital technologies: article published in European Geologist magazine

• [Bouziat et al.] Digital transformation and geoscience education: New tools to learn, new skills to grow.

Explore: some "IFPEN Inside" achievements

The examples below illustrate the variety of possible partnership topics and formats between IFPEN and players in the Tech world. They correspond to an open innovation approach to address the digital transformation needs in the subsurface domain.  

• Development of a demonstrator on a geoscience use case and submission of a joint ANR project with a conversational analytics start-up. Promotion through the TELLUS initiative.
• Advice on machine learning and support to the submission of a CITEPH project for a start-up specializing in remote maintenance. 
• Integration of subsurface data and Deep Learning models in the software platform of an intermediate-sized enterprise specialized in image analysis. Promotion through the TELLUS initiative.
• Development of a demonstrator on geological data with an SME specialized in virtual reality. Promotion through the TELLUS and SELENA initiative. 

Demonstrators developed with IBM and AskR.ai: towards digital companions for earth modelers?

Article to download: Digital companions for earth modelers (PDF - 910 Ko)