WorldWide Drilling Resource®

Autonomous Drilling with a Miniature Drilling Rig Adapted from Drillbotics ® Entering its sixth academic year, the 2019-2020 Drillbotics ® competition continues to expand. The international competi- tion involves undergraduates, master, and doctoral students from a variety of disciplines who design and build a small drilling rig that uses sensors and control algorithms to autonomously drill a well as quickly as possible, while maintaining borehole quality and integrity of the rig and drillstring. A rock sample to drill is provided by SPE’s DSATS (Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section). This year, students can compete in one of two offerings: Group A - Design and build a miniature drilling rig and autonomously drill a directional well through a homogeneous rock sample to a given plan. The focus for 2019-2020 is on automation and control. Each team must also have a safety plan which covers all foreseeable hazards and how they can be mitigated. Because most of the rigs have equipment spinning very fast, some form of pro- tective cover must be included in the rig design. Teams must consider risks due to handling the rock, avoiding injury from rotating machinery, electrical shock, and more. How the team communicates before and during rig operations is also important to the judges. Group B - Design, model, and simulate controls for a miniature directional drilling rig and demonstrate on a virtual drilling system. This provides an alter- native for universities that have limited resources - the focus is on modeling and simulation, with no physical rig construction required. In the past, teams freely shared lessons learned, which more rapidly advances the science of drilling automation. Everyone said they had a lot of fun while learning things that were not in textbooks. Students also participated in related events at conferences and workshops, meeting and networking with industry leaders in drilling automation. www.starironworks.com 257 Caroline Street Punxsutawney, PA 15767 800-927-0560 • 814-427-2555 Fax: 814-427-5164 SERVINGTHECONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Serving the Drilling Industry 44 MARCH 2020 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® G&O Congratulations to the Mewbourne School of Petroleum & Geological Team from the University of Oklahoma who took first place at the 2018-2019 Drillbotics ® Competition. Photo courtesy of the University of Oklahoma.