Inspecting industrial facilities using sensor packages

A long-range communication constrained (LRCC) sensor package for deployment in an industrial process facility, the LRCC sensor package comprising:

• a sensor configured to generate one or more sensor signals representing one or more aspects of the industrial process facility monitored by the LRCC sensor package;
• a long-range low-bandwidth (LR-LB) transmitter;
• an onboard anomaly detection unit configured to:
• based on the one or more sensor signals, detect, by the onboard anomaly detection unit of the LRCC sensor package, one or more anomalies of the one or more monitored aspects of the industrial process facility, and
• in response to detection of the one or more anomalies in the monitored one or more aspects of the industrial process facility, modulate, by the onboard anomaly detection unit of the LRCC sensor package, a signal transmitted by the LR-LB transmitter of the LRCC sensor package with a summons that causes one or more mobile robots to travel to an area of the industrial process facility and collect sensor data representative of one or more of the anomalies;
• and
• a short-range high-bandwidth (SR-HB) transmitter to transmit a signal modulated by the onboard anomaly detection unit of the LRCC sensor package with the sensor data representative of one or more of the anomalies.

A method comprising:

• monitoring one or more aspects of an industrial process facility through one or more sensor packages, wherein the monitoring includes operating said one or more sensor packages to:
• generate, by one or more of the sensor packages, one or more sensor signals,
• based on the one or more sensor signals, detect, by one or more of the sensor packages, one or more anomalies of the one or more monitored aspects of the industrial process facility, and
• responsive to detecting one or more anomalies, modulate, by one or more of the sensor packages, a long-range low-bandwidth (LR-LB) signal to include a summons for one or more mobile robots to travel to an area of the industrial process facility to receive sensor data carried by a short-range high-bandwidth (SR-HB) signal emanating from the area;
• identifying one or more LR-LB signals that include the summons for one or more of the mobile robots;
• and
• instructing, in response to identifying one or more LR-LB signals, one or more mobile robots to travel to the area of the industrial process facility to receive the sensor data carried by the SR-HB signal emanating from the area.