Method and control system node for monitoring operations on drill floor

31:

• A method for controlling drilling operations, the method comprising:
• defining a plurality of operation zones in a drilling operation area, each operation zone comprising at least one equipment arranged to operate in the operation zone;
• and
• repeatedly performing the steps of:
• determining a position of at least one person in the drilling operation area,
• determining whether the respective determined position is within any of the defined plurality of operation zones and associating each person to the operation zone in which the person is located,
• determining whether the respective determined position is within a safety zone in proximity to the one or more equipments,
• determining one or more actions to be performed with regard to each operation zone in which the person has been determined to be present, wherein the at least one action is determined dependent on whether the position of the person is in the safety zone or not, and
• transmitting one or more control signals for controlling the drilling operations in accordance with the determined one or more actions.

38:

• The method as recited in claim 31, wherein the step of determining whether the position of the person is in the safety zone comprises:
• obtaining a bounding box enclosing the person;
• obtaining one or more bounding boxes enclosing the one or more equipments in each operation zone;
• and
• determining whether the person is proximate the at least one equipment based on a relative position between the bounding box of the person and the bounding boxes of the one or more equipments.

40:

• The method as recited in claim 31, further comprising:
• determining for each equipment the safety zone using equipment sensors,
• wherein,
• the determined safety zone is used in determining whether the respective determined position is within the safety zone.

41:

• The method as recited in claim 31, wherein the method further comprises:
• determining an operational status of the one or more equipments,
• wherein,
• the at least one action is determined based on the operational status.

42:

• The method as recited in claim 31, wherein the method further comprises:
• obtaining a sequence of instructions for execution of one or more operations of the one or more equipments of at least one of the plurality of operation zones;
• and
• controlling the one or more equipments in accordance with the obtained sequence of instructions.

43:

• The method as recited in claim 42, wherein the step of controlling the one or more equipments comprises at least one of:
• altering one or more planned operations of the one or more equipments;
• and
• delaying one or more planned operations of the one or more equipments.

44:

• The method as recited in claim 42, wherein automatically controlling the operations of the one or more equipments comprises:
• executing a first instruction in the sequence of instructions;
• redefining the plurality of operation zones upon executing the first instruction;
• and
• executing a second instruction in the sequence of instructions.

45:

• The method as recited in claim 31, further comprising a step of:
• identifying whether the person in the operation zone is an authorized person;
• wherein,
• the one or more actions to be performed is determined based on the identification of whether the person in the operation zone is the authorized person.

47:

• A method for monitoring operations in a drilling operation area, the method comprising:
• providing one or more bounding boxes enclosing one or more equipments in each operation zone among a plurality of operation zones of a drill floor;
• identifying a movement of the one or more bounding boxes;
• evaluating whether the movement of the one or more bounding boxes is in accordance with a predetermined sequence of operations for the one or more equipments enclosed by the one or more bounding boxes;
• and
• performing one or more actions in response to the evaluation.

52:

• The method as recited in claim 51, wherein automatically controlling the operations of the one or more equipments comprises:
• identifying whether the bounding box enclosing one equipment overlaps the bounding box of another equipment when moving according to the predetermined sequence of operations;
• and
• allowing the overlap of the bounding boxes in response to identifying that the movement of the bounding boxes is executed in accordance with a planned operation.

53:

• The method as recited in claim 51, wherein automatically controlling the operations of one or more equipments comprises:
• identifying whether the movement of the one or more bounding boxes enclosing the one or more equipments is not in accordance with the planned operation;
• and
• controlling the one or more equipments to avoid the one or more equipments being in contact, in response to identifying that the movement of the one or more bounding boxes is not in accordance with the planned operation.