Antarctic subglacial drilling rig: Part IV. Electrical and electronic control system

Abstract

In many cases, the efficiency and safety of a drilling project depend on the reliability of the electrical and electronic control system, as the process progresses without visual access of the operator. The electrical and electronic system provides and regulates the power supply for the drill, collects and monitors the drill data during the whole operating process, and sends and receives the control instructions and feedback signals. The entire system is composed of the surface, borehole and software subsystems. The surface subsystem serves for operating the drilling process, transmitting the drilling and environmental data, and supplying power for the drill motor and downhole control system. The borehole subsystem is generally intended for borehole data acquisition, drill motor control, power regulation and communication. The software subsystem is designed for human–computer interaction, data processing and storage, and programming of signal acquisition and transmission of data. The control system of Antarctic subglacial drilling rig was tested during the 2018–2019 summer season near Zhongshan Station, East Antarctica, in the course of drilling to the bedrock at a depth of 198 m. It exhibited a steady and efficient performance without significant system failures.

Antarctic subglacial drilling rig: Part II. Ice and Bedrock Electromechanical Drill (IBED)

“…The design efforts mainly focused on the reliability and unification of different drill components. Three related papers describe the general concept of the drilling rig (Talalay and others, 2021), auxiliaries (Fan and others, 2021) and control system (Zhang and others, 2021).…”

Recoverable autonomous sonde for subglacial lake exploration: electronic control system design

“…In the early study, several electronic control systems have been designed for various drilling rigs. These systems include the control system designed for a new deep ice-sheet coring drill (Mortensen and others, 2007), electronic control system designed for an ice and bedrock electromechanical drill (Zhang and others, 2020), electronic control system designed for ice coring in Antarctica (Panichi and others, 2007) and control system designed for a replicate ice coring system (Mortensen and others, 2014). However, the electronic control systems for different drilling rigs are relatively different because of their different mechanical structures.…”

Antarctic subglacial drilling rig: Part I. General concept and drilling shelter structure

“…The remainder of this paper describes the drilling target, conditions and requirements, as well as the general concept of the drilling system. Three related papers describe the IBED drill (Talalay and others, 2021), auxiliaries (Fan and others, 2021) and control system (Zhang and others, 2021).…”