Apparatus and method for downhole well equipment and process management, identification, and actuation

A method or orienting downhole equipment in a wellbore, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a downhole conduit having at least one inlet and a plurality of outlets, the downhole conduit further having a non-acoustic identification transmitter unit that stores an identification code and transmits a non-acoustic signal corresponding to the identification code;
• (b) providing a downhole structure that comprises a non-acoustic receiver unit that can receive the signal transmitted by the identification transmitter unit, decode the signal to determine the identification code corresponding thereto, and compare the identification code to a preset target identification code;
• the downhole structure moveable through the conduit;
• (c) moving the downhole structure in close enough proximity to the non-acoustic receiver unit to receive the non-acoustic signal transmitted by the non-acoustic identification transmitter unit;
• and
• (d) orienting the downhole structure through one of the plurality of outlets based on the determined identification code.

A method of providing telemetry from downhole to a surface operator, comprising:

• (a) providing a transmitter unit in a downhole structure;
• (b) providing a downhole tool having a non-acoustic receiver unit, data sensors, a microprocessor, and releasably storing a plurality of non-acoustic transmitter units;
• (c) moving the downhole tool in close enough proximity to the downhole structure so that the non-acoustic receiver unit can receive the non-acoustic signal transmitted by the non-acoustic transmitter unit;
• (d) writing data acquired from the data sensors to one of the plurality of non-acoustic transmitter units, the data written by the microprocessor;
• (e) releasing the one of the plurality of non-acoustic transmitter units;
• and
• (f) returning the one of the plurality of non-acoustic transmitter units to the surface.

A method of receiving data from a downhole well from the surface of the well, comprising:

• (a) providing non-acoustic transmitter units in the downhole well;
• (b) moving at least one non-acoustic receiver units into close enough proximity to the non-acoustic transmitter units to receive data;
• and
• (c) return the non-acoustic transmitter units to the surface.

A method for communicating between downhole tools and equipment in a wellbore, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a first downhole structure having one or more non-acoustic transmitter units and one or more non-acoustic receiver units;
• (b) providing a second downhole structure having one or more non-acoustic transmitter units and one or more non-acoustic receiver units;
• (c) receiving a signal from the one or more non-acoustic transmitter units of the first downhole structure with the one or more non-acoustic receiver units of the second downhole structure;
• and
• (c) receiving a signal from the one or more non-acoustic transmitter units of the second downhole structure with the one or more non-acoustic receiver units of the first downhole structure.