Surface real-time processing of downhole data
First Claim
1. A system for controlling oil well drilling equipment, including:
- one or more sensors distributed in the oil well drilling equipment, each sensor to produce a signal;
a surface processor coupled to the one or more sensors via a high speed communications medium to receive the signals from the one or more sensors via the high speed communications medium;
the surface processor situated on or near the earth'"'"'s surface, the surface processor including a program to process the received signals and to produce one or more control signals; and
one or more controllable elements distributed in the oil well drilling equipment, the one or more controllable elements to respond to the one or more control signals.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for controlling oil well drilling equipment is disclosed. One or more sensors are distributed in the oil well drilling equipment. Each sensor produces a signal. A surface processor coupled to the one or more sensors via a high speed communications medium receives the signals from the one or more sensors via the high speed communications medium. The surface processor is situated on or near the earth'"'"'s surface. The surface processor includes a program to process the received signals and to produce one or more control signals. The system includes one or more controllable elements distributed in the oil well drilling equipment. The one or more controllable elements respond to the one or more control signals.
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Citations
61 Claims
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1. A system for controlling oil well drilling equipment, including:
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one or more sensors distributed in the oil well drilling equipment, each sensor to produce a signal;
a surface processor coupled to the one or more sensors via a high speed communications medium to receive the signals from the one or more sensors via the high speed communications medium;
the surface processor situated on or near the earth'"'"'s surface, the surface processor including a program to process the received signals and to produce one or more control signals; and
one or more controllable elements distributed in the oil well drilling equipment, the one or more controllable elements to respond to the one or more control signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system for controlling logging while drilling, including:
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a plurality of downhole sensor modules distributed along a portion of a drill string and responsive to a characteristic of the formation in the vicinity of the drill string, each sensor module to produce a sensor signal;
a surface processor, coupled to the downhole sensor modules, the surface processor to receive sensor signals from the plurality of downhole sensor modules;
a program stored on a computer-readable media, the program when executed on the surface processor;
processes the received sensor signals to determine the characteristic and to identify changes to be made in the operation of the downhole sensor modules to adjust the measuring of the characteristic; and
generates the signals to transmit to the downhole sensor modules to reflect the changes to be made in the operation of the downhole sensor modules. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A system for controlling logging while drilling, including:
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a plurality of downhole sensor modules, which, when distributed along a portion of a drill string and treated as an array, identifies a characteristic of formation in the vicinity of the drill string, each sensor module to produce a sensor signal;
a plurality of downhole controllable element modules, which, when distributed along a portion of a drill string, can excite the formation in the vicinity of the drill string to exhibit the characteristic, each controllable element module being responsive to a control signal;
a surface processor, coupled to the downhole sensor modules and the downhole controllable element modules, the surface processor to receive sensor signals from the plurality of downhole sensor modules and to generate the control signals for the controllable element modules;
a program stored on a computer-readable media, the program when executed on the surface processor;
processes in real time the received sensor signals to determine the characteristic and to identify changes to be made in the operation of the downhole sensor modules to better measure the characteristic; and
generates in real time the control signals to transmit to the downhole controllable element modules to reflect the changes to be made in the operation of the downhole controllable element modules. - View Dependent Claims (32)
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33. An oil well drilling system for drilling an oil well from the surface into a borehole, the system including:
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a drill string;
one or more powerable elements distributed along the drill string;
a power source, the power source distributing power to the powerable elements. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method for controlling oil well drilling equipment, comprising:
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receiving a signal from a sensor disposed on an oil well drilling equipment disposed in a borehole;
processing the received signal at a surface processor disposed on or near the earth'"'"'s surface;
generating a control signal to control a controllable element disposed on the oil well drilling equipment; and
sending the control signal to the controllable element. - View Dependent Claims (45)
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46. A method for controlling oil well drilling equipment, comprising:
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sending a signal from a sensor disposed on an oil well drilling equipment disposed in a borehole to a surface processor; and
receiving from the surface processor a control signal, said control signal generated after processing the signal by the surface processor, said surface processor disposed on or near the earth'"'"'s surface. - View Dependent Claims (47)
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48. A system for data acquisition and control with wired drill pipe providing a high speed communication media including:
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one or more sensor modules able to produce a sensor signal indicative of at least one of, the formation being drilled and the drilling process, each of the one or more sensor modules having an operation and an interface to the communication media operable using a communications protocol;
a microcontroller associated with each sensor module to control at least one of the interface of that sensor module to the communication media and the operation of that sensor;
an ADC associated with at least one of the sensor modules to convert that sensor module'"'"'s sensor signal from an analog signal to a digital signal; and
a surface processor to process the digital signal from one or more of the sensor modules. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51, 52)
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53. A method for data acquisition and control with wired drill pipe providing a high speed communication media comprising:
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providing one or more sensor modules able to provide data indicative of the formation being drilled or the drilling process;
providing a surface processor;
said sensor module communicating, at high speed, data related to said formation or drilling process to said surface processor;
said surface processor receiving said data;
a control action being taken responsive to said data received to affect one of said drilling process or said data acquisition. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55)
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56. A system for data acquisition and control for use with drilling equipment disposed in a borehole and a high speed communication media providing high speed communications throughout the drilling equipment, the system including:
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essential electronic elements, which must be disposed in the borehole with the drilling equipment;
non-essential electronic elements, which, because of the presence of the high speed communications media, may be disposed in the borehole or outside the borehole;
the essential electronic elements being disposed in the borehole; and
the non-essential electronic elements being disposed outside the borehole. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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Specification