In September 2021, the Shandong Provincial Department of Emergency Management issued a notice regarding the "Provincial Work Plan for the Informatization Construction and Application of Hazardous Chemical Safety Production (2021-2022)," requiring the acceleration of informatization and intelligent construction and application for hazardous chemical safety production across the province, and the establishment and improvement of a provincial hazardous chemical safety production risk monitoring and early warning system.

In 2022, a strategic partnership was formed with NewLink, dedicated to combining energy digitalization scenarios with computer vision algorithms. This partnership aims to create energy digitalization industry + AI products and solutions for scenarios such as gas stations, charging stations, and integrated energy ports under NewLink and NewLink Zhidian. Focusing on three major directions—safety management, precise operations, and employee service standards for energy retail terminals—the goal is to promote the digital and intelligent upgrade of the energy industry and establish a new paradigm for AI smart gas stations.

I. Smart Gas Station Unloading and Safety Supervision

"Promote the application of intelligent video surveillance systems in fuel stations. Gas stations should adopt intelligent video surveillance technology to intelligently identify, alarm, and record violations such as smoking and making phone calls by personnel in fueling and unloading areas, abnormal conditions like open flames and smoke, personnel leaving their posts during unloading operations, improper placement of fire extinguishers, and non-standard situations such as insufficient electrostatic discharge time, and implement standardized channelization work at gas stations." —Shandong Provincial Department of Emergency Management, "Provincial Work Plan for the Informatization Construction and Application of Hazardous Chemical Safety Production (2021-2022)"

Based on this, and combined with the Eight-Step Unloading Method mechanism, the safety supervision of the unloading area at NewLink's gas stations is divided into 3 aspects:

Tanker Truck Recognition

The algorithm starts detection from the moment the tanker truck enters the site. The tanker truck must be stably parked in the unloading area, and after remaining stationary for a certain period, a signal indicating the completion of stabilization is reported before unloading operations can commence. After unloading is complete, a signal indicating the tanker truck's departure is reported as soon as it leaves.

Unloading Operation Safety Facility Recognition

To ensure operational safety during unloading, it is necessary to identify whether fire extinguishers and traffic cones are placed, whether the electrostatic grounding wire is connected, whether wheel chocks are placed under the wheels, and other safety facilities, as well as detecting whether the unloading hose is connected to the underground tank and the tanker truck in the correct sequence.

Unloading Operation Personnel Action Recognition

From the tanker truck's entry to its departure, the algorithm identifies that at least one person is present in the unloading area. Furthermore, before personnel enter the unloading area, the algorithm needs to identify whether they perform the electrostatic discharge at the grounding post operation within a certain period.

△ Smart Gas Station Unloading and Safety Supervision Algorithm Series

△ Partial Algorithm Effects for Unloading and Safety Supervision

In addition to the unloading process mentioned above, the algorithm automatically identifies and provides real-time alerts for environmental hazardous behaviors within the gas station's monitoring range, such as personnel smoking, making phone calls, open flames, and smoke, thereby nipping potential safety hazards at gas stations in the bud.

△ Smart Gas Station Environmental Hazardous Behavior Supervision Algorithm Series

II. Smart Gas Station Refined Operations and Management

Nowadays, gas stations, as part of the sales and service industry, are increasingly focusing on customer experience and operational efficiency. The algorithm integrates with the NewLink platform to create a "Smart Gas Station Management Platform," which uses recognition data of vehicles, customers, and employees at gas stations to provide a basis for improving turn-in rate, fill-up rate, throughput rate, return rate, and employee service levels, becoming a breakthrough point for gas station business transformation.

Gas Station Operations

The Vehicle Measurement Algorithm captures passing traffic flow, analyzes the turn-in rate, and generates customer heatmaps. The License Plate and Vehicle Feature Algorithm can analyze the consumption relationship between vehicles and fuel dispensers, enabling precise marketing and improving fill-up rates and return rates. By analyzing the fueling process of vehicles across multiple cameras, it optimizes the efficiency of each fueling step, improving the throughput rate.

Convenience Store Operations

Based on customer flow statistics and customer density algorithms, it obtains visualized customer flow heatmaps, recommends product shelving based on consumption data from similar stations, and provides product promotion and inter-store allocation suggestions based on sales performance, shelf life, etc. NewLink Energy, through its five-in-one non-fuel business experience of "brand + supply chain + operation management + digitalization + marketing," reshapes the operating model of gas station convenience stores, achieving dual-helix business growth.

Employee Management

Based on algorithms for employee uniform recognition, guiding gesture recognition, employee service efficiency timing, employee absenteeism, and employee sleeping on duty, it can record and score employee service levels, thereby providing data support for evaluating comprehensive employee service performance.

△ Smart Gas Station Refined Operations and Management Algorithm Series

III. Smart Gas Station Algorithm Solution Architecture

Currently, the AI smart gas stations jointly developed with NewLink have been successfully implemented and are operational in multiple gas stations nationwide. The AI smart gas station relies on the "NewLink Digital Mid-end Platform," and through digital applications, it promotes resource integration capabilities, builds a tripartite digital model of people/vehicles/goods, provides precise diagnostic analysis, efficiently reaches users, achieves rapid growth in gas station business traffic, reduces costs and increases efficiency on the operational side, provides high-value services for gas stations, and facilitates upgrade and transformation.