Drone Wellhead Survey and Wireless Choke Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for inspecting wellheads and performing choke adjustments require significant human capital, time, and vehicle expense, and pose a risk of human injury.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing drones equipped with transceivers, cameras, and processors to survey wellheads and adjust electronic chokes, enabling remote data collection and control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If field operators manually inspect wellheads and perform choke adjustments, then comprehensive data collection and control can be achieved, but significant human capital, time, and vehicle expense are required along with increased risk of human injury
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical inspection and adjustment operations with an autonomous drone system equipped with sensors, processors, and wireless communication capabilities. The drone autonomously navigates to wellheads, captures data through sensors, and communicates with control systems to adjust electronic chokes, eliminating the need for human operators to physically access wellhead equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a drone as an intermediary vehicle between human operators and wellhead equipment. The drone carries sensors, processors, and communication devices that enable data collection and control functions without requiring direct human presence at the wellhead, thus mediating the interaction and eliminating safety risks associated with manual inspection.
2Measurement precision
If manual inspection methods are used, then detailed wellhead data can be collected, but significant time and vehicle expense are required for surveying remote wellhead fields
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the inspection function into multiple independent components mounted on the drone: cameras for visual survey, sensors for data collection, processors for real-time analysis, and wireless communication devices for data transmission. This segmentation allows parallel execution of multiple measurement tasks simultaneously, significantly reducing survey time while maintaining comprehensive data collection capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from ground-level manual inspection to aerial three-dimensional surveying. The drone operates in the air space above wellhead fields, enabling simultaneous access to multiple wellheads from different spatial perspectives, thereby reducing the time required to survey remote fields compared to traditional ground-based methods.
3Productivity
If manual inspection methods are used, then comprehensive wellhead surveying can be performed, but the risk of human injury increases with the number of wellheads surveyed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces human operators with an autonomous drone system that performs all wellhead surveying and inspection functions. The drone's sensors, processors, and communication capabilities enable comprehensive data collection without requiring human presence at wellhead locations, thereby eliminating safety risks associated with manual inspection while maintaining full surveying capability.
Data Source
AI summary
In one aspect, a drone is disclosed for inspecting a wellhead having a transceiver and adjusting an electronic choke. The drone includes a plurality of propellers and a plurality of electric motors where each of the plurality of electric motors is connected to one or more of the plurality of propellers. The drone further includes a camera that captures a survey of the wellhead, a processor coupled to a memory that controls the plurality of electric motors based on the survey to position the drone within a transmission range of the transceiver of the wellhead, and a transceiver of the drone coupled to the processor that receives wellhead data from the transceiver of the wellhead and stores the wellhead data in the memory. In other aspects, a method for operating a drone and a non-transitory computer readable medium (CRM) storing instructions for performing operation of a drone are also disclosed.