Aerial drone for well-site and signal survey

• US 10,192,182 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2015
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Whipple, John, Jeirath, Nakul, Archer, Cameron, Sisk, David Allen, Gray, Stephen, Lee, Cody James, Gonzalez, Jr., Jesus, Wilmes, Theodore
• Primary Examiner(s): Marcus, Leland
• Application Number:
  US14/734,153
• Publication Number:
  US 20150356482A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

Implementations are directed to surveying equipment and/or signals at well sites using an aerial drone. In some implementations, actions include receiving data provided from the aerial drone, the data including signal measurement data, location data, and one or more of image data and video data associated with a well-site, processing the data to provide one or more of a signal survey and a well-site survey associated with the well-site, the signal survey indicating a strength of a signal at multiple locations of the well-site, the well-site survey indicating one or more pieces of equipment located at the well-site, and providing the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey to provide an equipment schedule, the equipment schedule identifying equipment to be installed at the well-site and, for at least one piece of equipment, a location to install the at least one piece of equipment.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for surveying equipment and/or signals at well sites using an aerial drone, the method being executed using one or more processors and comprising:

providing, by the one or more processors, a plurality of waypoints to the aerial drone to control the aerial drone fly over a flight path defined by the plurality of waypoints;

receiving, by the one or more processors, survey data provided from the aerial drone, the survey data comprising signal measurement data from equipment monitoring sensors, location data, and one or more of image data and video data associated with a well-site located within the flight path;

processing, by the one or more processors, the survey data to provide one or more of a signal survey and a well-site survey associated with the well-site, the signal survey indicating a strength of a signal at multiple locations of the well-site, the well-site survey indicating a location of one or more pieces of existing well-site equipment located at the well-site;

determining, by the one or more processors, a location to install communications equipment at the well-site based on the signal survey and the well-site survey; and

providing, by the one or more processors, an equipment schedule based on the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey, the equipment schedule identifying one or more pieces of communications equipment to be installed at the well-site and providing the location to install the one or more pieces of communications at least one piece of equipment, wherein the one or more pieces of communications equipment to be installed at the location are to enable remote monitoring of the one or more pieces of existing well-site equipment located at the well-site.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey to a mobile computing device for display of a graphical representation of the well-site based on the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the graphical representation comprises a signal map that indicates signal strengths at locations within the well-site.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the graphical representation comprises a multi-dimensional representation of the well-site.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the graphical representation comprises one or more labels, each label identifying a type of equipment at the well-site, and being automatically determined based on processing the data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the data to provide one or more of a signal survey and a well-site survey comprises processing the data based on one or more well-site models to identify at least one piece of equipment located at the well-site.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pieces of communications equipment that is to be installed at the well-site enable remote control of the one or more pieces of equipment located at the well-site.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal comprises a random phase multiple access (RPMA) signal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pieces of existing well-site equipment located at the well-site comprises one or more sensors installed at the well-site.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining that at least one sensor type is to be monitored, the sensor type being associated with the equipment monitoring sensors,

wherein the location to install the one or more pieces of communications equipment is determined based on location of one or more equipment monitoring sensors that have the sensor type.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations for surveying equipment and/or signals at well sites using an aerial drone, the operations comprising:

providing a plurality of waypoints to the aerial drone to control the aerial drone fly over a flight path defined by the plurality of waypoints;

receiving survey data provided from the aerial drone, the survey data comprising signal measurement data, location data, and one or more of image data and video data associated with a well-site located within the flight path;

processing the survey data to provide one or more of a signal survey and a well-site survey associated with the well-site, the signal survey indicating a strength of a signal at multiple locations of the well-site, the well-site survey indicating one or more pieces of existing well-site equipment located at the well-site;

determining, by the one or more processors, a location to install communications equipment at the well-site based on the signal survey and the well-site survey; and

providing, by the one or more processors, an equipment schedule based on the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey, the equipment schedule identifying one or more pieces of communications equipment to be installed at the well-site and providing the location to install the one or more pieces of communications at least one piece of equipment, wherein the one or more pieces of communications equipment to be installed at the location are to enable remote monitoring of the one or more pieces of existing well-site equipment located at the well-site.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein operations further comprise providing the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey to a mobile computing device for display of a graphical representation of the well-site based on the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the graphical representation comprises a signal map that indicates signal strengths at locations within the well-site.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the signal map comprises a heat map including a plurality of regions.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the graphical representation comprises a multi-dimensional representation of the well-site.

16. A system, comprising:

a computing device; and

a computer-readable storage device coupled to the computing device and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

receiving a plurality of waypoints defining a flight path for an aerial drone;

providing the plurality of waypoints to the aerial drone to control the aerial drone fly over the flight path and record survey data comprising signal measurement data from equipment monitoring sensors, location data, and one or more of image data and video data associated with a well-site located within the flight path;

receiving survey data provided from the aerial drone;

processing the survey data to provide one or more of a signal survey and a well-site survey associated with the well-site, the signal survey indicating a strength of a signal at multiple locations of the well-site, the well-site survey indicating one or more pieces of existing well-site equipment located at the well-site;

determining a location to install communications equipment at the well-site based on the signal survey and the well-site survey; and

providing an equipment schedule based on the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey, the equipment schedule identifying one or more pieces of communications equipment to be installed at the well-site and providing the location to install the one or more pieces of communications equipment, wherein the one or more pieces of communications equipment to be installed at the location are to enable remote monitoring of the one or more pieces of existing well-site equipment located at the well-site.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein operations further comprise providing the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey to a mobile computing device for display of a graphical representation of the well-site based on the one or more of the signal survey and the well-site survey.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the graphical representation comprises a signal map that indicates signal strengths at locations within the well-site.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the signal map comprises a heat map including a plurality of regions.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the graphical representation comprises a multi-dimensional representation of the well-site.