Machine adopts LIDAR sensors from auto industry
The best derrickmen in the drilling business can rack a stand of pipe at an approximate rate of about 20 seconds per pipe at the start of a tour, according to RigArm, a Calgary-based drilling equipment manufacturer. However, fatigue then begins to set in and can affect performance. “If somebody is standing on top of the rig and needs to move around 200 pipes, the speed will deteriorate over time as they get tired,” Vlad Jorgic, RigArm Co-Founder, President and Software Developer, said. To automate pipe handling on double and triple land rigs, the company is developing the Intelligent Hydraulic Pipe Handling Robotic Arm. “Our goal is for the operator in the control room to be able to tell the machine what to do and allow the machine to complete the entire sequence.”
The hydraulically powered robotic arm, which weighs just under 2,000 lb, would be bolted onto the rig’s racking board and controlled from the driller’s cabin. It can rack a stand of pipe in an estimated 20-25 seconds, according to the company.
The machine will be equipped with a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor and two ultrasonic sensors, located at the tip of the arm, to scan the racking board and precisely locate each stand of pipe. This will help to prevent any equipment collisions. “It senses where the pipe is and then it reaches for it. We have realized that you can’t rely on things being at fixed positions on drilling rigs, so the machine is able to navigate to find the pipe,” Mr Jorgic said.
Ultrasonic sensors are already commonly used in the oil and gas industry, but LIDAR sensors are a relatively new technology being borrowed from the automotive industry. Although LIDAR technology has been available since the 1960s, LIDAR sensors did not become widely used until the manufacturing industry adopted them in the 2000s. Since 2010, the automotive industry also has begun using the sensors to assist in the development of autonomous car prototypes.
Mr Jorgic said his company recognized the similarity between how an autonomous car must react to road conditions and how the robotic arm would need to react in a drilling operation, leading to the adoption of LIDAR sensors for RigArm. “The conditions on drilling rigs are demanding and uncertain. Things move, shake and you can expect that nothing will go as expected, so we needed a system that can understand these changes and quickly adapt on its own, which is what LIDAR technology allows.”
The main challenge in developing the robotic arm has been refining algorithms to allow the arm to properly locate the pipe. Mr Jorgic said the company is experimenting with algorithms that coordinate with cameras mounted onto the robotic arm to scan a three-dimensional image of the environment. If one of the device’s sensor readings doesn’t match the 3D scan, the system’s algorithms will ignore data from the faulty sensor in order to keep the machine operational. “The machine is much different than traditional robotics where everything is preprogrammed. This actually uses motion-planning algorithms that allow it to basically program itself based on changes in the environment.”
The robotic arm has been tested in a lab, and the company is now seeking to test the machine on a North American land rig for at least six months. “We would like to get the machine onto a live well to prove it can work reliably in the field,” he said. “Proving the reliability is very important because we’ve seen mixed feelings from drilling contractors who have worked with these types of machines and have not been successful – which is maybe why we still see a lot of manual pipe handling.”
Mr Jorgic emphasized that this robotic arm is not something that the derrickman would operate remotely with joysticks, which can be challenging to control. The pipe-handling sequence would be carried out autonomously by the robotic arm once the driller pushes a button in his cabin. Pending the field trial, Mr Jorgic said, the robotic arm is expected to become commercial for the North American market by 2017.
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