MPC-Based Feedback Delay Compensation Scheme for Directional Drilling Attitude Control

Abstract

Abstract For practical engineering reasons, the attitude control of directional drilling tools is subject to significant temporal feedback delays, which reduce the performance and stability of these algorithms. This paper details the modification of an existing attitude tracking algorithm to use a model predictive control (MPC) scheme incorporating a state-space plant model augmented with pure delays on the state variables. Provided with an estimate of the temporal feedback delay and other plant model parameters, the MPC scheme is able to mitigate for the effects of the feedback delay. Additionally, feedback loops designed by pole placement are added to the core MPC scheme to identify disturbances to the plant, which cannot be measured directly on line. The paper details the algorithm and gives results from a transient simulation-based on the stated scheme.