Architectures and Algorithms for a Smart Drilling Robot

Robotic drilling is likely to become a key feature of the next generations of drilling rigs and novel drilling technical solutions. We have been developing a drilling robot on a laboratory scale to run different drilling scenarios and achieve high-level performances with less or even no human intervention. In this paper, we introduce its mechanical systems, perception capabilities, data management, decision-making algorithms, and digital architecture. Results illustrate its autonomous operations, incident management capabilities, learning outcomes, improvement potential, and challenges. Lab testing and evaluation is an essential part of implementing, promoting and accelerating robotic applications of drilling automation. Our drilling robot is a useful, safe and cost-effective solution for testing, integrating and improving hardware, software, data, and digital/robotic products in a laboratory scale, before expensive full-scale testing and integration.