Equivalent-input-disturbance-based robust control of drilling trajectory with weight-on-bit uncertainty in directional drilling

Abstract

Weight-on-Bit is of vital importance to the drilling trajectory orientation in directional drilling. This paper concerns robust control of drilling trajectory with weight-on-bit uncertainty for the directional drilling process. The objective is to develop an equivalent-input-disturbance-based trajectory control scheme such that the drilling trajectory is precisely controlled by suppressing the fluctuations of weight-on-bit. The motion orientation of both the drill bit and a series of stabilizers is used to describe the evolution process of the drilling trajectory. A state-space model with weight-on-bit uncertainty is derived from the evolution equation through a variable transformation. An equivalent-input-disturbance-based trajectory control system is designed, and two control loops are to track and control the trajectory inclination and azimuth, respectively. Two internal models track the trajectory inclination and azimuth respectively to elevate the control accuracy in the trajectory system. Two observer models combined with two low-pass filters estimate the trajectory inclination and azimuth by measuring the bottom hole assembly's inclination and azimuth. Some sufficient conditions are derived using linear-matrix-inequalities to obtain the control parameters by considering a reasonable fluctuation range of weight-on-bit. Finally, the control effects in the build-up and horizontal section of the drilling trajectory illustrate the proposed approach's validity.

Keywords: Directional drilling trajectory; Equivalent input disturbance; Robust control; Weight-on-bit uncertainty.