Drillbotics

Drillbotics® is an international competition for universities to design and build a small drilling rig that uses sensors and control algorithms to autonomously drill a rock sample provided by SPE's Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (DSATS). Alternately, teams may create a virtual rig to drill a virtual well. This year marks the eighth competition for the title of Drillbotics champion and a chance for sponsored travel to present a paper at the next SPE/IADC Drilling Conference at an event organized by DSATS. The past years involved undergraduates, masters and doctoral students from a variety of disciplines who built innovative drilling machines and downhole tools while developing a deeper understanding of automating the drilling process. The recent addition of the virtual rig includes simulation the drilling process, including ROP optimization while overcoming various simulated drilling dysfunctions. Everyone involved claims to have had a lot of fun while learning things that are not in the textbooks. This year’s contest promises to be more challenging as teams must autonomously drill a directional well with multiple downhole targets. SPE and DSATS SPE is the largest individual-member organization serving managers, engineers, scientists and other professionals worldwide in the upstream segment of the oil and gas industry. Most recently, membership totaled more than individuals from 144 countries including students serving in 368 student chapters. Please visit the SPE site (http://spe.org) for further information. DSATS is a technical section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) organized to promote the adoption of automation techniques using surface and downhole machines and instrumentation to improve the safety and efficiency of the drilling process. More information is available at the DSATS homepage (https://connect.spe.org/DSATS/Home/).