Towards the Correct Interpretation of Real-Time Signals on the Well-Site

Drilling operations rely on the collaboration of many participants, and the efficiency of this collaboration depends on timely exchange of information. The complexity and variability of this information make it difficult to achieve interoperability between the involved systems. Recent industry efforts aim at facilitating the many aspects of interoperability. A central element is semantic interoperability: the ability to correctly interpret the real-time signals available on the rig. This contribution presents an implementation of semantic interoperability using OPC UA technology. It translates the principles developed through joint industry efforts into actual drilling operations. The process used the steps of characterizing the drilling real-time data with semantic graphs, and then developing methods to transfer this characterization to an operational real-time environment. A semantic interoperability API (application programming interface) uses the semantic modelling capabilities of OPC UA. Its objectives are to facilitate the acquisition and identification of real-time signals (for data consumers) and their precise description (by data providers). The different components of the API reflect the diversity of scenarios one can expect to encounter on a rig: from WITS-like data streams with minimal semantics to fully characterized signals. The high-level interface makes use of semantical techniques, such as reasoning, to enable advanced features like validation or graph queries. The implementation phase resulted in a series of open-source solutions that cover all the stages of semantic interoperability. The server part integrates real-time sources and exposes their semantics. Data providers can use dedicated applications to accurately describe their own data, while data consumers have access to both predefined mechanisms and to more advanced programming interfaces to identify and interpret the available signals. To facilitate the adoption of this technology, test applications are available that allow interested users to experiment and validate their own interfaces against realistic drilling data. Finally, demonstrations involving several participants took place. The paper discusses both the testing procedures, the results and insights gained. The solutions described in this contribution build on newly developed interoperability strategies: they make on-going industry efforts available to the community via modern technologies, such as OPC UA, semantic modelling, or reasoning. Our hope is that the adoption of the developed technology should greatly facilitate the deployment of next generation drilling automation systems.