Control and Optimization of Quad Rotor Directional Drilling System

To achieve high well production and improve accessibility of oil reservoirs in complex locations, Directional Steering Systems (DSS) is used for drilling wells in Oil and Natural Gas (ONG) industry. In this work, a directional driller consisting of 4 motors is investigated both in its theoretical modeling and control technique. We investigate several directions for improving the model. First investigated approach is for optimization of the system using optimal control technique like Interior Point Optimization. The optimization procedure determines the drilling parameters to minimize the drilling time and the deviation from the planned trajectory. The control is updated at equal distance intervals. The second approach is to develop a Control techniques, like MPC in order to improve the tracking performance of the model. The control commands include torque of each of the 4 motors. The control is updated at regular time intervals. MPC and Interior Point Optimization techniques are compared and results are drawn which give an insight about the best method to be adopted in controlling the system.