Methods and Devices for Analog Downlinking of Drilling Commands
AssigneeQuantum Energy Technologies
InventorDavid A. Switzer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems for adjusting a drill direction continuously during a drill operation comprising the steps of: selecting a desired downhole response value; computing from a preset mathematical relationship a corresponding surface control value; setting the surface control variable to the desired surface control value; measuring the surface control variable continuously downhole and computing at downhole an averaged surface control value; computing a corresponding downhole response value from the averaged measured surface control value; and setting the downhole response variable to the computed downhole response value.
Claims23
A method for controlling a downhole tool in a drilling operation, the method comprising the steps of:
- selecting a desired first downhole response variable value;
- computing a desired first surface control variable value corresponding to the desired first downhole response variable value according to a preset mathematical relationship wherein the preset mathematical relationship is accessible by one or more surface and/or downhole controllers;
- setting the first surface control variable to the desired first surface control variable value;
- measuring the first surface control variable at a bottom hole assembly and obtaining a plurality of measured values of the first surface control variable;
- processing the plurality of measured values to determine a representative value for the first surface control variable;
- computing a first downhole response variable value corresponding to the representative value for the first surface control variable of the plurality of measured surface control values according to the preset mathematical relationship;
- and,
- controlling the downhole tool according to the computed first downhole response variable value.
An analog method of downlinking a plurality of downhole response variables to a bottom hole assembly during a drilling operation, the method comprising the steps of:
- selecting a desired plurality of downhole response variable values;
- computing a desired respective surface control variable value corresponding to each of the plurality of desired first downhole response variable values according to respective preset mathematical relationships, wherein the mathematical relationships are accessible by one or more surface and/or downhole controllers;
- setting each of the plurality of surface control variables respectively to the desired surface control variable values;
- measuring each of the plurality of surface control variables downhole at or near the bottom hole assembly to obtain a time sequence of measurements of each of the plurality of surface control variables;
- for each of the plurality of surface control variables computing over a respective window a representative value of a portion of the time sequence of measurements of the respective surface control variable corresponding to the respective window;
- computing respective first downhole response variable values corresponding to the representative values for the respective surface control variables according to the respective preset mathematical relationships;
- and,
- setting each of the downhole response variables to the respective computed downhole response variable values.
An analog method of downlinking a toolface angle to a bottom hole assembly during a drilling operation, the method comprising the steps of:
- selecting a desired toolface angle value;
- computing a rotational speed of a drill string (RPM) corresponding to the desired toolface angle value according to a preset mathematical relationship;
- rotating the drill string at the computed rotational speed;
- measuring RPM of the drill string at the bottom hole assembly to obtain a sequence of measured RPM values;
- computing a representative value of the plurality of time-stamped RPM values obtained in a first window;
- computing a toolface angle corresponding to the representative value according to the preset mathematical relationship;
- and,
- setting a toolface angle of a steering system to the computed toolface angle value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.