Directional drilling target steering apparatus and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11629554-B2
Application number	US-202117373553-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2021
Priority date	Jan 5, 2012
Publication date	Apr 18, 2023
Grant date	Apr 18, 2023

Abstract

An apparatus and method are used in conjunction with a system for performing horizontal directional drilling, the system including a drill string extending from a drill rig to a boring tool such that the boring tool is steerable based on a roll orientation. The system also includes an arrangement for generating steering commands for guiding the boring tool to a target position. Responsive at least in part to the steering commands, a display is configured to selectively indicate each of a rotate command, a push command and a spin command. A steering indicator is described which indicates a current roll orientation of the boring tool. A 3-D grid can be animated and centered on either a steering or target indicator. Rounding of a steering command ratio can limit the display of target roll orientations to only those that a given boring tool transmitter is capable of sensing and indicating.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. In a system for performing horizontal directional drilling including a drill string extending from a drill rig to a boring tool such that the boring tool exhibits a pitch orientation and at least periodically transmits a pitch reading based on the pitch orientation and is steerable based on a roll orientation thereof, said system including an arrangement for generating steering commands for guiding the boring tool to a target position, an apparatus comprising:
a display configured to illustrate a steering indicator in a positional relationship with a target indicator on said display and a pitch trending indicator that illustrates a current pitch orientation in conjunction with a pitch trend including a minimum pitch and a maximum pitch based on a plurality of the transmitted pitch readings.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the minimum pitch orientation and the maximum pitch orientation are measured based on the transmitted pitch readings within a time period having a duration extending up to present time.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the time period is the last 10 seconds.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the minimum pitch orientation and the maximum pitch orientation are selected from a predetermined number of the most recently transmitted pitch readings extending up to present time.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the predetermined number of transmitted pitch readings is 30.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pitch trending indicator includes a pitch arc on which the minimum pitch orientation and the maximum pitch orientation are graphically indicated along with the current pitch orientation.

Assignees

• Merlin Technology Inc

Inventors

• Kolpack Bruce
• Bahr David
• Hall Thomas J
• Medeiros Benjamin J

Classifications

• E21B7/04

  Directional drilling · CPC title

• E02F5/18

  for horizontal holes {or inclined holes} · CPC title

• E21B7/046 Primary

  horizontal drilling (drilling with mechanical conveying means E21B7/003) · CPC title

• E21B44/00

  Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions · CPC title

• E21B47/024

  of devices in the borehole (determining slope or direction of the borehole E21B47/022) · CPC title