Directional drilling techniques, based on rotary steerable systems, are used to generate complex curved boreholes. In practice, however, boreholes drilled with such systems often show instability-induced borehole spiraling, which negatively affects the borehole quality and increases drag losses while drilling. As a basis for controller synthesis, we present a directional drilling model in terms...

Directional drilling has evolved over the last few decades to become standard operational practice in the oil and gas exploration industry. One method of steering utilizes a technique known as magnetic Measurement While Drilling (MWD). Vector measurements of geomagnetic fields along a well-bore are used to determine it orientation. This method is advantageous in that it is inexpensive and effic...

Abstract An Automatic Well Planner (AWP) is used to efficiently adjust pre-determined well paths honor near-well properties and increase overall production. AWP replicates modern geosteering decision-making where adjustments pre-programmed are driven by continuous integration of data obtained from logging-while-drilling look-ahead technology. In this work, combined into a robust optimization sc...

Design of blasting parameters plays an important role in the optimization of mining cost as well as cost of subsequent processing of ore. Drilling and handling costs are the major mining cost. This work presents an indirect optimization model for mining cost, through optimization of blasting parameters for a particular set of drilling and loading equipment.

In laser drilling, an assist gas is often used to remove material from the drilling point. In order to design assist gas nozzles to minimize spatter formation, measurements of spatter trajectories are required. We apply computer vision methods to measure the 3D trajectories of spatter particles in a laser cutting event using a stereo camera configuration. We also propose a novel method for cali...