Remote control system for drill

• US 9,026,270 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2013
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Caterpillar Global Mining Equipment LLC (Caterpillar Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Caterpillar Global Mining Equipment LLC (Caterpillar Incorporated)
• Inventors: Diekmann, Timo, Taylor, Samuel C., Poettker, Alois
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAIGE, TYLER D
• Application Number:
  US13/895,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20140343754A1
• Time in Patent Office: 719 Days
• Field of Search: 701/2, 175/24
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 44/00 Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0016 characterised by the operator's input device input arrangements for computing systems in general G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00

Abstract

Mobile drilling devices and systems, methods, and computer-readable media for controlling such devices are provided. One method includes receiving user input from a user of a mobile computing device. The method further includes transmitting data based on the user input from the mobile computing device to a control circuit of a mobile drilling device via a wireless network connection. The method further includes generating a plurality of control signals based on the data received from the mobile computing device. Each of the plurality of control signals is configured to control movement of a separate one of a plurality of movement devices of the mobile drilling device. The plurality of movement devices are configured to move the mobile drilling device between locations.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a drill, comprising:

receiving, via a user interface of a mobile computing device, user input from a user of the mobile computing device;

transmitting data based on the user input from the mobile computing device to a control circuit of a mobile drilling device via a wireless network connection, wherein the wireless network connection comprises at least one of a WiFi connection or a cellular data network connection; and

generating, using the control circuit, a plurality of control signals based on the data received from the mobile computing device, wherein each of the plurality of control signals is configured to control movement of a separate one of a plurality of movement devices of the mobile drilling device, and wherein the plurality of movement devices are configured to move the mobile drilling device between locations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the user interface of the mobile computing device comprises a touch-screen display device;

receiving the user input comprises;

providing, on a display device of the mobile computing device, a display image comprising a two-dimensional drill movement control portion; and

receiving user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within the two-dimensional drill movement control portion; and

generating the plurality of control signals based on the data received from the mobile computing device comprises generating the plurality of control signals to control movement of all of the plurality of movement devices based on user input representative of a single touch input selection of one or more points within the two-dimensional drill movement control portion.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within the two-dimensional drill movement control portion comprises user input representative of movement across a part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to the two-dimensional drill movement control portion.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising transforming, using at least one of the mobile computing device or the control circuit, the user input representative of the movement across the part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to the two-dimensional drill movement control portion into separate data portions corresponding to a desired movement of each of the plurality of movement devices.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising, for each movement device, a control map comprising a plurality of movement level zones, wherein each of the plurality of movement level zones for a movement device is associated with a different portion of the two-dimensional drill movement control portion and a different speed of movement of the movement device, and wherein the speed of movement of the movement device resulting from the user input is determined based on one or more movement level zones of the plurality of movement level zones that contain the one or more points within the two-dimensional drill movement portion that are selected by the user.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising, for each movement device, a control map comprising a substantially continuous movement level gradient, wherein the movement level gradient for a movement device is associated with at least a part of the two-dimensional drill movement control portion, and wherein a speed of movement of the movement device resulting from the user input is determined based on a part of the movement level gradient that contains the one or more points within the two-dimensional drill movement portion that are selected by the user.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the plurality of control signals based on the data received from the mobile computing device comprises generating control signals configured to control a direction and speed of movement of the mobile drilling device based on the user input representative of movement across a portion of the two-dimensional drill movement control portion.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the two-dimensional drill movement control portion comprises a virtual joystick.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the two-dimensional drill movement control portion comprises a rectangular area within the display image.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein:

receiving the user input further comprises;

providing a plurality of individual movement device control portions within the display image, wherein each individual movement device control portion is associated with one of the plurality of movement devices; and

receiving user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within one or more of the plurality of individual movement device control portions; and

generating the plurality of control signals based on the data received from the mobile computing device comprises generating the plurality of control signals based on either the user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within the two-dimensional drill movement control portion or the user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within one or more of the plurality of individual movement device control portions, and wherein generating the plurality of control signals based on the user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within one or more of the plurality of individual movement device control portions comprises generating control signals configured to control each of the plurality of movement devices based on a portion of the user input corresponding to the individual movement device control portion associated with the movement device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device comprises one of a mobile telephone or a tablet computing device.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of a mobile computing device, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

providing, on a touch-screen display device of the mobile computing device, a display image comprising a two-dimensional drill movement control portion;

receiving user input representative of user movement across a part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to the two-dimensional drill movement control portion; and

transmitting data based on the user input to a mobile drilling device over a wireless network connection, wherein the data is configured to cause the mobile drilling device to control movement of a plurality of movement devices of the mobile drilling device based on the user input representative of the user movement across a part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to the two-dimensional drill movement control portion, wherein the plurality of movement devices are configured to move the mobile drilling device between locations.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the processor to transform the user input representative of the movement across the part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to the two-dimensional drill movement control portion into separate data portions corresponding to a desired movement of each of the plurality of movement devices, and wherein transmitting data based on the user input to the mobile drilling device comprises transmitting the separate data portions to the mobile drilling device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the data is further configured to cause the mobile drilling device to control a direction and speed of movement of the mobile drilling device based on the user input representative of movement across a portion of the two-dimensional drill movement control portion.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the two-dimensional drill movement control portion comprises a virtual joystick.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the processor to:

provide a plurality of individual movement device control portions within the display image, wherein each individual movement device control portion is associated with one of the plurality of movement devices; and

receiving user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within one or more of the plurality of individual movement device control portions;

wherein the data is configured to cause the mobile drilling device to control movement of a plurality of movement devices based on either the user movement across a part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to the two-dimensional drill movement control portion or the user input representative of a user selection of one or more points within one or more of the plurality of individual movement device control portions.

17. A mobile drilling device comprising:

a control circuit comprising a processor operably coupled to at least one memory and configured to;

receive, from a mobile computing device comprising a touch-screen display device over a wireless network connection, data based on user input representative of movement across a part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to a two-dimensional drill movement control portion of a display image provided on the touch-screen display device;

generate a plurality of control signals based on the data received from the mobile computing device, wherein each of the plurality of control signals is configured to control movement of a separate one of a plurality of movement devices of the mobile drilling device, and wherein the plurality of movement devices are configured to move the mobile drilling device between locations, wherein the control circuit is configured to generate the plurality of control signals to control movement of all of the plurality of movement devices based on user input representative of a single touch input selection of one or more points within the two-dimensional drill movement control portion.

18. The mobile drilling device of claim 17, wherein the control circuit is configured to transform the data based on the user input representative of the movement across the part of the touch-screen display device corresponding to the two-dimensional drill movement control portion into separate control signals configured to control the movement of each of the plurality of movement devices.

19. The mobile drilling device of claim 17, wherein the control circuit is configured to control a direction and speed of movement of the mobile drilling device based on the user input representative of movement across a portion of the two-dimensional drill movement control portion.