Directional drilling target steering apparatus and method

In a system for performing horizontal directional drilling including a drill string extending from a drill rig to a boring tool such that the boring tool exhibits a pitch orientation and at least periodically transmits a pitch reading based on the pitch orientation and is steerable based on a roll orientation thereof, said system including an arrangement for generating steering commands for guiding the boring tool to a target position, an apparatus comprising:

• a display configured to illustrate a steering indicator in a positional relationship with a target indicator on said display and said steering indicator is configured to present information that is representative of a current roll orientation of the boring tool using a set of predefined roll positions in conjunction with indicating a desired steering direction to steer the boring tool to the target position and the desired steering direction, as indicated, moves stepwise between the plurality of predefined roll positions responsive to the current roll orientation of the boring tool and the display is further configured to illustrate a current pitch orientation in conjunction with a pitch trend including a minimum pitch and a maximum pitch based on a plurality of the transmitted pitch readings.

In a system for performing horizontal directional drilling including a drill string extending from a drill rig to a boring tool such that the boring tool is steerable based on a roll orientation thereof, said system including an arrangement for generating steering commands for guiding the boring tool to a target position, an apparatus comprising:

• a display configured to illustrate a steering indicator in a positional relationship with a target indicator on said display and said steering indicator is configured to present information that is representative of a current roll orientation of the boring tool using a set of predefined roll positions in conjunction with indicating a desired steering direction to steer the boring tool to the target position and the desired steering direction, as indicated, moves stepwise between the plurality of predefined roll positions responsive to the current roll orientation of the boring tool and the target indicator is positionally fixed on the display and the steering indicator moves around the target indicator to present the positional relationship.

In a system for performing horizontal directional drilling including a drill string extending from a drill rig to a boring tool such that the boring tool is steerable based on a roll orientation thereof, said system including an arrangement for generating steering commands for guiding the boring tool to a target position, an apparatus comprising:

• a display configured to illustrate a steering indicator in a positional relationship with a target indicator on said display and said steering indicator is configured to present information that is representative of a current roll orientation of the boring tool using a set of predefined roll positions in conjunction with indicating a desired steering direction to steer the boring tool to the target position and the desired steering direction, as indicated, moves stepwise between the plurality of predefined roll positions responsive to the current roll orientation of the boring tool and the steering indicator is positionally fixed on the display and the target indicator moves around the steering indicator to present the positional relationship.

In a system for performing horizontal directional drilling including a drill string extending from a drill rig to a boring tool such that the boring tool is steerable based on a roll orientation thereof and the system is configured to generate steering commands such that the boring tool can home in on a target, an apparatus comprising:

• a display configured to illustrate a steering indicator in a positional relationship with a target indicator based on the steering commands;
• and
• a grid pattern illustrated on the display and originating on a selected one of the target indicator and the steering indicator such that the grid pattern includes a plurality of elements and at least some elements of the grid pattern are configured to move responsive to movement of the boring tool toward the target.

In a system for performing horizontal directional drilling including a drill string extending from a drill rig to a boring tool such that the boring tool is steerable based on a roll orientation thereof, said system including an arrangement for generating steering commands for guiding the boring tool to a target position, a method comprising:

• selectively visually indicating, responsive at least in part to the steering commands, rig actuation commands including each of a rotate command, a push command and a spin command such that at any given time during a drilling operation one of the rotate command, the push command and the spin command is issued to an operator of the system wherein execution of the rig actuation commands guides the boring tool to the target position.