Methods and systems for drilling boreholes

A computer-readable medium, the computer-readable medium being non-transitory and including program instructions for drilling a borehole that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system operatively associated with a drill rig, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

• monitoring a drill parameter during a drilling phase and a retraction phase;
• using the monitored drill parameter to draw a conclusion about a borehole characteristic;
• choosing a defect mitigation routine based on the borehole characteristic;
• and
• implementing the defect mitigation routine.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions for drilling a borehole that, when executed by a computer associated with a drill rig, cause the computer to carry out the steps of:

• after initiating a drilling phase, performing a collaring routine to form a collar in the borehole, said collaring routine comprising a first phase collaring routine and a second phase collaring routine, said second phase collaring routine beginning after contacting competent ground in the borehole;
• monitoring drill parameters associated with the drill rig comprising drill rotational speed, drill torque, drill depth, hoist speed and number of drill retractions;
• determining whether at least one drill parameter is within a predetermined specification for at least one monitored drill parameter during the drilling phase and the retraction phase, the retraction phase following completion of the drilling phase;
• and
• implementing a drilling phase defect mitigation routine when the at least one drill parameter is outside the predetermined specification for the drilling phase;
• and
• implementing a retraction phase defect mitigation routine when the at least one drill parameter is outside the predetermined specification for the retraction phase.