Voice is a natural interface on the plant floor because operators and engineers often need information while moving, inspecting or troubleshooting. The challenge is not speech recognition. The challenge is making sure the answer is grounded in the right asset, time window and operating context.
Resolve context before answering
A question such as why Line 3 stopped is incomplete unless the system knows which site, line, shift and time window the user means. Delfi should resolve that context from identity, current selection or explicit follow-up before presenting a finding.
Cortex and operational data sources provide asset and process context while Sentrix can reason over governed evidence available to the user.
Make citations conversational
A voice answer should remain inspectable. The user may hear a concise summary, but the interface should also show the alarms, trends, work orders, procedures or images that support the explanation.
This keeps voice from becoming a black-box layer and lets the operator move from a spoken question to detailed evidence when needed.
Separate information from authority
The copilot can retrieve a procedure, summarize a shift or prepare a work request. That does not mean it should bypass permissions or issue uncontrolled process commands.
Actions should flow through the same role checks, approvals and audit trails as other interfaces. Voice changes how the request is expressed, not who is authorized to approve it.
- Context resolution
- Evidence-linked answer
- Role and site permissions
- Human approval for governed actions
- Audit trail of request and response
Refusal protects trust
If sensor data is stale, the asset is ambiguous or a procedure is missing, the copilot should say so clearly. A confident answer built on incomplete context is more dangerous than a useful refusal.
That behavior is central to the Delfi idea: make the plant easier to talk to while keeping operational truth visible.
Standards and primary sources used for context.
These links provide technical context. Their inclusion does not claim product certification or compliance unless explicitly stated elsewhere.
