Special Issue Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2018, Vol. 10(3) 1–14
Ó The Author(s) 2018
A new measurement-while-drilling DOI: 10.1177/1687814018767498
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
system based on inertial technology

Hua Song1,2, Huiyin Huang1, Junxiang Zhang1 and Di Qu1

Abstract
With the rapid development of trenchless technology, measurement-while-drilling systems draw extensive attention. At
present, measurement-while-drilling systems are generally based on magnetic surveying technology or single-
accelerometer measurement. In that case, the accuracies of these measurement-while-drilling systems are limited. In this
article, a new measurement-while-drilling system with redundant accelerometers based on inertial technology is pre-
sented to improve the measuring performance of attitude, especially the measuring accuracy of roll. To reflect the influ-
ence of electromagnetic interference, the credibility estimation could be got by comparing the same attitude angles from
the accelerometer and magnetometer. The calculation algorithm and experimental data are given in this article.
Compared with traditional measurement-while-drilling systems, this new measurement-while-drilling system obtains bet-
ter anti-disturbance property, higher measuring accuracy, and more reliable calculated results.

Keywords
MWD system, inertial technology, 3-axis accelerometer, trenchless technology

Date received: 21 January 2017; accepted: 26 February 2018

Handling Editor: Francesco Massi

Introduction with the improved construction efficiency, the cost will

be substantially reduced.3,4
The introduction of measurement-while-drilling During the construction, however, engineers are
system unable to observe the construction progress directly. In
Nowadays, the underground pipeline plays an impor- order to guarantee a proper drilling procedure, a com-
tant role in the municipal construction due to its versa- plete knowledge of the drilling bit’s orientation and
tile functions, such as water drainage, power supply, position should be acquired in real time.5 Therefore, the
communication, and so on. The conventional open-cut measurement-while-drilling (MWD) technology
methods, which were widely used for underground util- receives extensive attention. The so-called MWD tech-
ity installation and replacement years ago, need to nology is a method which could continually or
trench or destruct the entire ground surface where the
pipeline should be installed.1 Thus, using conventional 1
School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang
methods is often associated with the interruption of
University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
traffic and influence on people’s daily life. As a result, 2
Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Aero-Engine, Beihang
the trenchless technology is developing rapidly in recent University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
years.2 The trenchless technology includes many con-
struction or application methods, such as the horizon- Corresponding author:
Huiyin Huang, School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering,
tal directional drilling (HDD). With minimum need for Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, People’s
ground trenches or excavation, these methods cause Republic of China.
less inconvenience for urban management. In addition, Email: [email protected]

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further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/
open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 1. A typical drilling tool with MWD system.

discretely measure various parameters during drilling

process. These parameters are concerned with the posi-
tion information (drilling depth and trajectory) and the
spatial attitude of the drilling bit. The spatial attitude
includes (1) pitch, which reflects the inclination of the Figure 2. Controllable drilling: (a) straight drilling and (b) bent
drilling direction relative to the horizontal plane; (2) drilling.
roll, also known as tool face angle, which is the angular
rotation of the drilling bit, when the drilling bit has an
axially offset slanted face, it could reflect the direction geomagnetic components. With these data, the attitude
change of the drilling trajectory in the next step; and (3) information of the drilling bit could be obtained in the
azimuth, which refers to the angle between the vertical attitude calculation and display device. However, the
projection of the drilling bit’s axis in the horizontal geomagnetic field is easily interfered by the surround-
plane and the reference (such as the true north). If these ing environment, such as iron ore and electromagnetic
parameters are available in real time, it is convenient to device, which is the main drawback of this kind of
control the drilling process along the predefined trajec- MWD system.9,10 Besides, it results in increased cost
tory.6 Generally, measuring the spatial attitude of the due to the use of non-magnetic drilling string necessary
drilling bit is the basic function for an MWD system. for shielding the magnetometer.11
A typical drilling tool used in trenchless technology The MWD system based on radiolocation principle
is shown in Figure 1. It is generally composed of a drill- has a radio transmitter in the while-drilling unit. The
ing bit, an MWD system, and a non-magnetic drilling ground-monitoring unit, which is usually placed in drill-
string for shielding magnetic interference in the sur- ing well entrance or the surface over the drilling trajec-
rounding environment.7 The controllable drilling is illu- tory, receives the radio signal and calculates the drilling
strated in Figure 2; if the drilling bit is advancing and bit’s position by radio intensity. Because of the radio
rotating, the drilling trajectory will follow the direction transmitter’s limited power, this system could not be
of the drilling string’s axis straightly. When we need to used in deep underground environment. The signal
change the drilling direction, with the MWD system’s penetrability of radio transmitter subjects to the influ-
help, we could rotate the drilling bit’s slanted face so ence of stratum condition; as a consequence, the appli-
that the tool face angle is equal to the desired value. cations of this MWD system are limited. Furthermore,
Then the drilling bit moves forward without rotating, attitude information of the drilling bit is difficult to be
the drilling trajectory will be bent due to the effect of measured accurately.
reaction force.8 Recently, a new type of MWD system, which is
based on inertial technology, is developed gradually.
As shown in Figure 4, this MWD system has a 3-axis
Defects of traditional MWD systems accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope.12 During drilling
At present, MWD systems are based on different mea- process, the drilling bit’s acceleration and angular rota-
suring principles. A typical MWD system is based on tion are measured, so the position and attitude of the
magnetic surveying technology; its block diagram is drilling bit are obtained through a calculation algo-
shown in Figure 3. This system is composed of two rithm. Due to accumulated drift error of gyroscope,
parts: the underground while-drilling unit and the this MWD system frequently has degraded perfor-
ground-monitoring unit. The former is used to measure mance in long-term measurement. High performance
drilling parameters. The magnetometer, which is fixed gyroscopes, such as fiber-optic gyroscope, are generally
in the internal place of the while-drilling unit, gets the characterized with high cost and large size. So they
Song et al. 3

Figure 3. A typical MWD system based on magnetic surveying technology.

Figure 4. An MWD system based on inertial technology.

have limited usage in MWD system.13 In order to mea- System design

sure the azimuth of the drilling bit, a magnetometer is
The MWD system discussed in this article is composed
added in some MWD systems. However, these systems
of two parts: (1) the while-drilling unit and (2) the mon-
do not obtain an effective data fusion between magnet-
itoring unit. The while-drilling unit, which is installed
ometer and accelerometer.
inside of the drilling string, is the core component of
the MWD system. It measures necessary parameters
during drilling process. The ground-monitoring unit is
A new MWD system with redundant accelerometers
the core of data processing and calculation, with which
As discussed above, most of the MWD systems use the motion state of the drilling bit could be displayed,
magnetometer or single accelerometer to measure atti- and the essential data could be stored.
tude angles of the drilling bit. However, these MWD
systems usually have unsatisfactory performance in
harsh drilling conditions.14 Aiming at some defects of The while-drilling unit
existing technology, this article presents a new MWD The while-drilling unit is composed of a microcontrol-
system based on inertial attitude measurement theory. ler, 3-axis accelerometer A, 3-axis accelerometer B,
This system is characterized with redundant multiple magnetometer, temperature sensor, and communica-
sensors. In order to improve the performance of MWD tion device. The block diagram is shown in Figure 5;
system, especially the measuring accuracy of attitude each component’s function and design are as follows:
angles, two 3-axis accelerometers are used as redun- As the core of the while-drilling unit, the C8051F120
dancy to measure the acceleration of the drilling bit. microcontroller executes control commands, sends con-
To obtain the azimuth of the drilling bit, a 3-axis mag- trol signals to sensors, and completes data processing
netometer is used to measure geomagnetic components. task. Two programmable A/D converters (12-Bit and
The credibility, which reflects the influence of electro- 8-Bit, eight external inputs) are integrated inside of it.15
magnetic interference on measuring accuracy, could be With these A/D converters, the outputs of the sensors
obtained by comparing the same parameters (roll, for are converted to digital signals. Then, the processed
example) measured by magnetometer and acceler- data and other essential information are sent to the
ometer. Combined with the calculation algorithm, the communication device through the Universal
developed MWD system obtains good performance of Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) module.
measuring range, measuring accuracy, anti-disturbance Two micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)
ability, and so on. capacitive accelerometers LIS3L06AL are utilized to
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

output the acceleration of the drilling bit. The measur-

ing range of each chip is selectable at 6 2 g/ 6 6 g,
which is enough in measurement while drilling,16 and
the output voltage is linear with the acceleration.
Besides, it has the advantages of small size, simple cir-
cuit, and low power consumption.17 In order to calcu-
late pitch and roll of the drilling bit, the 3-axis
accelerometer A is used to measure three mutually
orthogonal components of the acceleration of gravity
when the drilling bit is stationary. In addition, to get
the drilling bit’s displacement, it is also used to measure
the acceleration when the bit is moving. The 3-axis
accelerometer B is added to calculate the attitude infor-
mation (especially the roll angle) as redundancy. The
detailed function and information about accelerometer
B will be discussed in the following part of this article.
The HMC1053 magnetometer is designed to measure
direction and magnitude of Earth’s magnetic fields. It is
a high-performance magneto-resistive sensor and could
be used in strong magnetic field environment. The
advantages of this chip are orthogonal 3-axis sensing,
miniature size, and wide field range of 6 6 gauss.18 In
this system, three geomagnetic components from the
magneto-resistive sensor are calculated to obtain the
azimuth of the drilling bit and credibility estimation.
In order to provide temperature compensation for
the output of the accelerometers, the DS18B20 1-wire
digital thermometer is used to measure system’s tem-
perature during the drilling process.
The power line carrier communication interface is
designed as the communication module. In this com-
munication method, the modulated signal is super-
posed and transmitted in the DC power line, in which
case only two wires are needed. As a result, the anti-
disturbance property of the system can be improved.19
The communication module is composed of P485
transceiver IC, P111 power line media interface as the
output power amplifier, and other assist components.
It is worthwhile to note that sensors and microcontrol-
ler might be affected by the electromagnetic noise
Figure 5. The block diagram of the MWD system.

caused by the power line carrier communication inter-

face, so the communication module should be shielded
in a grounded metal shell as shown in Figure 5.20
In addition, in order to guarantee the measuring
accuracy, a high precision power module, which pro-
vides stable analog and digital power supply, is included
in the while-drilling unit.

The monitoring unit

The monitoring unit is composed of Advanced RISC
Machine (ARM) 9 system, LCD, communication inter-
faces, and other modules. The block diagram is shown
in Figure 5.
The ARM 9 system is the core of the monitoring
unit. It is based on S3C2416 16/32-Bit microprocessor
Song et al. 5

Figure 6. The installation of redundant accelerometers.

which is designed to provide hand-held devices and gen- coordinate systems, respectively, enhances the perfor-
eral applications with low-power and high-performance mance of anti-interference and improves the measuring
microcontroller in small size. This ARM 9 system has accuracy. In order to differentiate two data groups
64M SDRAM, 64M FLASH, two UARTs, USB mod- measured by two accelerometers availably, the angle
ule, LCD interface, and so on. In addition, this system between two installation planes of accelerometers
supports WinCE operating system as well as UNIX, so should be appropriate. As a consequence, the angle
it is suitable for portable devices. With measuring infor- between the planes of the two boards is 45°, and the
mation from the while-drilling unit, the attitude and angle between the bottom edge of the daughter-board
position of the drilling bit are calculated in S3C2416 and the edge of the main board is also 45°. The con-
microprocessor. Moreover, the temperature compensa- crete design is shown in Figure 6.
tion is applied to improve the measuring accuracy.
The interaction device is comprised of LCD and key-
The calculation algorithm of attitude and
board. The final results calculated by microprocessor
are displayed in the LCD in real time. The dynamic dis- drilling trajectory
played information includes the attitude information The calculation algorithm, which is the key of the data
(pitch, roll, and azimuth), displacement information processing in the MWD system, includes temperature
(three axial displacement and total displacement of the compensation, angle calculating, dead reckoning, and
drilling bit), and additional graphic information. The credibility estimation. The detailed contents of each
keyboard has multiple function press keys which could part are given below.
switch displayed information and control the whole
MWD system.
Meanwhile, in the monitoring unit, the interfaces The definitions of the coordinate systems and
include (1) power line carrier communication interface attitude angles
to transmit information between the while-drilling unit In order to get the attitude angles, reference coordinate
and the monitoring unit, (2) RS232, and (3) USB inter- systems are defined in this article. These coordinate sys-
faces to transmit data to PC or other devices for further tems include the geographic coordinate system (GCS),
processing. the carrier coordinate system A (CCS-A), and the car-
rier coordinate system B (CCS-B). Three axes of the
GCS point to the directions of the East (E), North (N),
Installation of redundant accelerometers and up (U), respectively. The origin of the CCS-A is
The traditional MWD system uses the data measured located in the place where the accelerometer A is fixed.
by single accelerometer to calculate the attitude infor- Its X-axis refers to the forward direction of the bit’s
mation of the drilling bit. When pitch is close to 6 90°, axis. In the cross section of the bit, from the view of the
the calculated result of roll usually has a great error due positive direction of the X-axis, the Y-axis refers to the
to the presence of noise. To avoid this defect, the 3-axis direction of the boring tool face, and the Z-axis refers
accelerometer B is added in the system as redundancy. to the direction orthogonal to X-axis and Y-axis. The
The accelerometer A is fixed on the main circuit three axes of CCS-A conform to the right-hand rule.
board along the directions of the carrier coordinate sys- The MWD system measures the attitude of the drill-
tem. And the accelerometer B is fixed on the daughter- ing bit, which consists of pitch, roll, and azimuth. Pitch
board which is connected to the main circuit board refers to the acute angle between the X-axis of CCS-A
slantedly. Using redundant accelerometers, which mea- and the horizontal plane. Roll is defined as the angle of
sure three mutually orthogonal components of the Z-axis of CCS-A in relation to vertical direction in the
acceleration of gravity in two different reference plane perpendicular to the X-axis of CCS-A. The
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 7. The definitions of GCS, CCS-A, and the attitude

angle.

Figure 9. The calculation of the dip angle.

bit’s working. So the measuring accuracy is usually

unsatisfied. The influences of temperature on the per-
formance of inertial devices are as follows: (1) The mea-
suring error might be caused by the fluctuation of the
environment temperature around inertial devices. (2)
The thermal expansion of materials may cause the com-
ponent deformation and disturbing torque. (3) The
physical parameters of the device might be changed
because of temperature fluctuation.21 As a result, it is
important to take into account the influence of tem-
perature on the accelerometer’s output.
The actual output of accelerometer is defined as

a = K0 (T) + K1 (T)ai + K2 (T)a2i ð1Þ

where a is the actual output of accelerometer; ai is the

Figure 8. The relationship between CCS-A and CCS-B. ideal output; K0 (T ), K1 (T ), and K2 (T ) are zero offset,
scale factor, and the second order nonlinear coefficient
azimuth is the angle between the vertical projection of related to temperature T , respectively.
the X-axis in the horizontal plane and the N-axis of K0 (T), K1 (T ), and K2 (T) in current temperature could
GCS. The relationship between GCS and CCS-A is illu- be got according to their own experimental curves. In
strated in Figure 7. Meanwhile, pitch (u), roll (g), and this way, more accurate estimated output of acceler-
azimuth (u) are also shown in Figure 7. ometers could be obtained. With temperature compen-
In addition, the accelerometer B has CCS-B. sation, the measuring accuracy is improved.
According to the installation relationship between two
accelerometers, the CCS-B could be obtained through
coordinate rotating from CCS-A. First, the CCS-A is The calculation algorithm of the attitude angle
rotated 45° around the Z-axis. Then, it is rotated 45° As shown in Figure 9, with the output from single accel-
around the X-axis. Both rotations are clockwise. The erometer, the pitch (u) and roll (g) could be calculated
relationship between CCS-A and CCS-B is illustrated as follows
in Figure 8.
fxA
sinu = ð2Þ
g
The temperature compensation
Installed inside the drilling string, the while-drilling unit fyA
sing = ð3Þ
could be affected by the heat produced by the drilling gcosu
Song et al. 7

Figure 10. The calculation of the azimuth.

Note: The part labels in the artwork of this figure are described under the heading ‘‘The calculation algorithm of the direction angle’’.

2 3 2 31 2 B 3
Roll could also be calculated as fxA cos458 sin458 0 fx
4 fy 5 = 4 cos458sin458
A
cos2 458 sin458 5 4 fyB 5
fyA fzA sin2 458 sin458cos458 cos458 fzB
tang = ð4Þ
fzA ð6Þ
where g is the acceleration of gravity, fxA , fyA , and fzA are Combining equations (2), (4), and (6), using the data
the acceleration components of gravity from the accel- from the accelerometer B, the calculation of pitch (uB )
erometer A along X-, Y-, and Z-axes separately in the and roll (gB ) could be obtained as follows
CCS-A. pffiffiffi B
From equation (3), we can see that if u is close to 2fx + fyB + fzB
sinuB = ð7Þ
6 90° (fxA is close to 6 g), cosu will have a great fluc- 2g
tuation due to the small measuring error of u. From pffiffiffi
 2fxB + fyB + fzB
equation (4), when u is close to 6 90° (fxA is close to tang B = pffiffiffi pffiffiffi ð8Þ
6 g), the outputs of fyA and fzA are quite small. Because  2fyB + 2fzB
of the presence of noise, the calculated result of equa-
Although the rotation of drilling string can produce
tion (4) is inaccurate, too. As a result, the calculated
centrifugal force, which will seriously interfere with the
results of g are very unreliable in this situation.
operation of accelerometers, rotational speed compen-
In order to improve the performance of MWD sys-
sation can eliminate these influences by calibrating the
tem, the following method is used: if
accelerometers in advance.22
jfxA j  0:707g (juj  458), g is calculated by equation (3);
when jfxA j.0:707g (juj.458), g is calculated by the data
from the accelerometer B. The acceleration components
The calculation algorithm of the direction angle
of gravity between the accelerometer A and the acceler- As shown in Figure 10(a), with three geomagnetic com-
ometer B have the relationship as ponents in the CCS-A from the magnetometer, u1 is
2 3 2 3 the angle between the vertical plane of the bit’ axis and
fxB 1 0 0 the magnetic north is calculated. If u2 is the angle
6fB7 6 7 between the magnetic north and the North as shown in
4 y 5 = 4 0 cos458 sin458 5
Figure 10(b), then the azimuth (u) is
fzB 0 sin458 cos458
2 32 A 3 ð5Þ u = u1 + u2 ð9Þ
cos458 sin458 0 fx
6 76 f A 7 With u and g, the calculation of u is
4 sin458 cos458 0 54 y 5
0 0 1 fzA HX sinusing  HY cosg + HZ cosusing
u = u1 + u2 = tan1
where fxB , fyB , fzB
and are the acceleration components of HX cosu + HZ sinu
gravity from the accelerometer B along x, y, and z-axes 1 HN
+ tan
in the CCS-B, respectively. HE
From equation (5), we could get ð10Þ
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 11. The calculation algorithm of the dead reckoning.

Note: In this figure, Xi, Yi, Zi, are the coordinates of the MWD in the geographic coordinate system.

where HX , HY , and HZ are the geomagnetic components jg  g c j

b=1  ð13Þ
from the magnetometer along X-, Y-, and Z-axes sepa- jgj
rately in the CCS-A. Besides, HE and HN are the geo-
magnetic components along the E- and N-axes where b is the credibility estimation of azimuth.
separately in the GCS.
Meanwhile, HX , HY , HZ , and HE , HN , HU have the The calculation algorithm of the dead reckoning
relationship as
2 3 2 32 3 In trenchless technology, the drilling trajectory of the
HE cosf sinf 0 1 0 0 drilling bit is an essential parameter for engineers. As
6 7 6 76 7 shown in Figure 11(a), in order to acquire the entire
4 HN 5 = 4 sinf cosf 0 54 0 cosgc singc 5
HU 0 0 1 0 sing c cosg c drilling trajectory, the trajectory is divided into a series
2 32 3 of segments, and each small segment could be seen as a
cosuc 0 sinuc HX
6 76 7 straight line approximately. The displacement of each
4 0 1 0 54 HY 5 ð11Þ segment is calculated through twice integration with
sinuc 0 cosuc HZ the output of the accelerometer. Combined with the
attitude information (u, g, and u), as shown in Figure
where uc is the pitch angle calculated by geographic 11(b), each segment can be estimated. In the calculating
data, and g c is the roll angle calculated by geographic process, three orthogonal displacement increments of
data. Both uc and gc are used to estimate the credibility the ith segment are calculated as
discussed in the next part.
DXi = Dli cos(ui )cos(Dfi )
DYi = Dli sin(ui )
The credibility estimation of electromagnetic ð14Þ
DZi = Dli cos(ui )sin(Dfi )
interference
Dfi = fi  fi1
The accuracy of azimuth is bound up with the output
error of magnetometer. Due to the strong interference where i is the sequence number of the segment, ui is the
during the drilling process, the data from the magnet- segment’s pitch angle, fi is the segment’s azimuth angle,
ometer usually has uncertain error. Therefore, it is and Dli is the segment’s displacement, while DXi , DYi ,
essential for MWD system to give a definition of cred- and DZi are displacement components of the segment in
ibility which reflects the intensity of electromagnetic GCS, respectively.
interference on measurement of azimuth. The credibility Accumulating the displacement of each segment, the
estimation proposed in this article is shown as follows: complete trajectory of the bit could be got. With the
When the drill is stationary, pitch (u) and roll (g) calcu- length of standard drill pipe, the length of the drilling
lated by the data from accelerometers are extremely accu- trajectory could be calibrated at special points to
rate, so they could be seen as the exact values. Compared improve the measuring accuracy of the bit’s position.
with pitch (uc ) or roll (g c ) from the magnetometer, the In dynamic measurement, the interaction between
credibility estimation of azimuth is given below drilling string and wall, drilling bit, and rocks will pro-
duce complex vibration which mainly contains twisting
ju  uc j vibration, lateral vibration, and longitudinal vibration.
b=1  ð12Þ The outputs of accelerometers will not be accurate
juj
Or because of the vibration. Factors that influence the
Song et al. 9

Figure 13. Experiment on the MWD.

turntable whose measurement accuracy is 0.05°, and

the monitoring unit displays pitch and roll.
To test measuring accuracy, the stationary experi-
ments are divided into two steps.

a. Stationary Experiments of Roll: fixed pitch

angle at 0°, adjust the 3-axis turntable to change
Figure 12. The while-drilling unit and the monitoring unit.
roll gradually. The experimental data are given
in Table 1. From Table 1, we can see that the
vibration are various and time-varying. However, statis- measurement error of roll is less than 0.5°.
tical regularity exists in various vibrations overall. The Meanwhile, the measurement error of pitch is
regularity cannot be described by functions related to less than 0.3°.
time, but it can be described by probability theory and b. Stationary Experiments of Pitch: fixed roll angle
statistics. Therefore, we can obtain the frequency spec- at 0°, adjust the 3-axis turntable to change pitch
trum of the vibration signals through power spectral gradually. The experimental data are given in
density function of accelerometer output in vibration Table 2. The measurement error of pitch is less
than 0.5°. Meanwhile, when pitch is no more
circumstance, and an appropriate low-pass filter, which
than 80°, the measurement error of roll is less
is usually a Butterworth filter with certain orders and
than 0.7°. From Table 2, the calculated results
cutoff frequency, is designed to eliminate the influence
of roll are 85.45° and 11.11° when pitch is
of vibration and ensure the accurate measurement.22
6 90°, respectively. However, the actual value
of roll is 0°, so the measurement error is
extremely large due to the interferences in this
Experiments and tests
situation.
Single-accelerometer tests
In order to test the measuring accuracy of MWD sys- To research the influences of interference or noise on
tem with single accelerometer, we use accelerometer A the measurement errors of roll angle, the experimental
to calculate attitude angles (pitch and roll) of the drill- circuit is fixed at different pitch angles to test the fluc-
ing bit. Figure 12 shows the while-drilling unit and the tuation of roll from accelerometer A. At each pitch
monitoring unit. As a guard, the pipe is filled with soft angle, the experimental circuit is stationary, and the cal-
rubber which can immobilize and protect the circuit culated results of pitch and roll are recorded once per
board from mechanical vibration. The two ends of the second. Each test will last 30 s. Several test results are
pipe are sealed so that the system is waterproof. The shown in Figure 14. In addition, the standard devia-
experimental circuit of accelerometer A is fixed on a 3- tions of each test are shown in Table 3. From Table 3,
axis turntable which could adjust attitude angles conve- we can conclude that the calculated results of pitch did
niently. Figure 13 shows experiment process on the not fluctuate significantly at different pitch angles. This
MWD. The while-drilling unit is fixed on the 3-axis phenomenon indicates that the interference (or noise)
10 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 1. Experimental data of roll from accelerometer A when pitch is fixed at 0°.

No. Pitch (°) Roll (°) Actual roll value (°) No. Pitch (°) Roll (°) Actual roll value (°)

1 20.02 20.03 0 10 0.26 169.98 170

2 0.03 19.88 20 11 0.26 180.15 180
3 0.05 39.79 40 12 20.02 199.72 200
4 20.05 59.55 60 13 20.03 220.21 220
5 20.05 79.74 80 14 0.00 240.28 240
6 0.00 89.58 90 15 20.08 260.03 260
7 20.15 109.83 110 16 20.01 270.45 270
8 20.15 129.73 130 17 20.05 300.15 300
9 0.22 149.84 150 18 20.05 329.94 330

Table 2. Experimental data of pitch from accelerometer A when roll is fixed at 0° (180°).

No. Pitch (°) Roll (°) Actual pitch value (°) No. Pitch (°) Roll (°) Actual pitch value (°)

1 0.02 0.02 0 11 20.10 180.01 0

2 10.13 0.16 10 12 210.00 179.77 210
3 20.13 0.45 20 13 220.16 179.87 220
4 30.18 0.36 30 14 229.94 179.60 230
5 40.19 0.64 40 15 240.27 179.86 240
6 50.11 0.36 50 16 250.50 179.49 250
7 60.06 20.01 60 17 260.00 179.75 260
8 69.98 0.22 70 18 270.10 180.13 270
9 80.02 0.43 80 19 280.02 179.76 280
10 89.89 85.45 90 20 289.96 11.11 290

Table 3. The standard deviations of tests at different pitch angles.

Actual pitch value (°) Standard deviation (°) Actual pitch value (°) Standard deviation (°)
Pitch Roll Pitch Roll

0 0.0094 0.0114 —— —— ——
30 0.0150 0.0120 230 0.0143 0.0135
45 0.0138 0.0143 245 0.0105 0.0140
60 0.0117 0.0231 260 0.0260 0.0146
70 0.0183 0.0278 270 0.0104 0.0234
80 0.0181 0.0784 280 0.0082 0.0610
85 0.0151 0.1217 285 0.0130 0.0798
90 0.0084 5.4217 290 0.0075 17.6372

intensities of these tests are at some level approxi- a. juj  458 : in this situation, the calculated results
mately. The calculated results of roll, however, are of pitch and roll from accelerometer A are valid.
much different. When pitch is between 260° and 60°, The attitude angles from accelerometer B, which
the fluctuations of roll caused by interference or noise are calculated by utilizing equations (7) and (8),
are at small level. But the fluctuations of roll are much are fused to improve the measuring accuracy. The
more dramatic with the increment of pitch when pitch calculated results of dual accelerometer are shown
is larger than 60° (less than 260°). So the accuracy of in Table 4. Compared with calculated results of
MWD system with single accelerometer is unsatisfied. single accelerometer (utilizing accelerometer A
only), the max error of pitch is decreased from
0.26° to 0.22°. Meanwhile, the max error of roll is
Dual-accelerometer tests decreased from 0.45° to 0.34°, too.
To improve the measuring accuracy of attitude, espe- b. juj.458 : Pitch: the calculated results of pitch
cially the accuracy of roll, the accelerometer B is added from two accelerometers are both valid, so the
in the MWD system. Tests are divided into two steps: final result of pitch is the fusion of u and uB .
Song et al. 11

Figure 14. Experiment data at different pitch angles: (a) pitch is 0°, (b). pitch is 45°, (c) pitch is 80°, (d) pitch is 85°, (e) pitch is 90°,
(f) pitch is 290°, (g) pitch is 285°, and (h) pitch is 280°.

Table 4. Calculated results of dual accelerometer when pitch is less than 45°.

No. Accelerometer A (°) Accelerometer B (°) Calculated results (°) Actual value of roll (°)
u g uB gB uR gR

1 20.02 20.03 20.02 0.04 20.02 0.01 0

2 20.02 29.87 0.02 30.00 0.00 29.94 30
3 20.05 59.55 0.10 59.76 0.03 59.66 60
4 0.00 89.58 0.01 89.87 0.01 89.73 90
5 20.17 119.88 20.02 119.80 20.10 119.84 120
6 0.22 149.84 0.03 149.97 0.13 149.91 150
7 0.26 2179.85 0.18 2179.85 0.22 2179.85 180
8 0.04 2150.11 20.02 2150.06 0.01 2150.09 2150
9 0.00 2119.72 20.05 2119.93 20.03 2119.83 2120
10 20.01 289.55 0.07 289.93 0.03 289.74 290
11 20.05 259.85 20.02 259.98 20.04 259.92 260
12 20.05 230.04 0.00 230.15 20.03 230.10 230
12 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 15. Calculated results of roll when pitch is 6 80°, 6 85°, and 6 90°: (a) pitch is 80°, (b) pitch is 280°, (c) pitch is 85°,
(d) pitch is 285°, (e) pitch is 90°, and (f) pitch is 290°.

Roll: the calculated results of roll from accelerometer standard deviations of roll with dual accelerometer
B is used as the final results. When pitch is fixed at decrease sharply. So the fluctuations of roll maintain
6 80°, 6 85°, and 6 90°, respectively, the experimental small level which approaches the fluctuation level when
data are shown in Figure 15. juj  458 . In addition, the fluctuations of roll appear to
The standard deviations of these tests are shown in have no relationship with the increment of juj, this is
Table 5. Compared with single accelerometer, the much different from single accelerometer’s situation.
Song et al. 13

Table 5. The standard deviations of tests with single accelerometer and dual accelerometer.

Actual pitch value (°) Standard deviation (°)

Single accelerometer Dual accelerometer
Pitch Roll Pitch Roll

80 0.0181 0.0784 0.0183 0.0222

85 0.0151 0.1217 0.0124 0.0303
90 0.0084 5.4217 0.0099 0.0201
290 0.0075 17.6372 0.0188 0.0275
285 0.0130 0.0798 0.0213 0.0295
280 0.0082 0.0610 0.0171 0.0171

Table 6. Comparison of the three systems in standard deviation.

Measurement approaches Standard deviation (°)

Azimuth Pitch Roll

Dual-accelerometer MWD system * 0.22 0.34

DREMWD system 0.5 0.3 2.0
MIMU/magnetometer integrated MWD system 3.0 0.5 0.5

MWD: measurement-while-drilling.

As a result, compared with MWD system utilizing sin- Miniature Inertial Measurement Unit (MIMU)/mag-
gle accelerometer, the measuring accuracy of roll is netometer integrated MWD system in literature24 is a
improved by utilizing dual accelerometer. typical MWD system equipped with single acceler-
ometer. In this system, a single accelerometer is utilized
to measure the system’s attitude. Inevitably, the tool
Contrast with industry approaches face angle will fluctuate acutely when pitch is close to
Different industry-standard approaches develop con- 6 90°. However, this problem will not appear in the
stantly at present, and they are widely applied in dual-accelerometer MWD system. Comparison of the
MWD. Electromagnetic MWD and MWD system uti- above mentioned systems in standard deviation is
lizing single accelerometer are playing critical roles in shown in Table 6.
this field. Although they perform well in most measure- The accuracy of azimuth is bound up with the output
ment situations, they still have shortages in some error of magnetometer and the credibility estimation of
aspects such as anti-disturbance and measurement azimuth is given in section ‘‘The credibility estimation
accuracy. The advantages of the new MWD system of electromagnetic interference.’’ The measurement
proposed in this article are embodied after comparing accuracy of dual-accelerometer MWD system is much
with those of industry approaches. better than the other two systems, which proves that
First, we take Electromagnetic wave DREMWD dual-accelerometer MWD system has certain advan-
system introduced in literature23 as an example. As tages in measurement accuracy.
described, electromagnetic wave technology is applied
in this system. However, the geomagnetic field is easily
Conclusion
interfered by the surrounding environment, such as
iron ore and electromagnetic device. The measurement Aiming at the defects of existing technology, a new
result will be unreliable under such circumstances. By MWD system based on inertial technology is proposed
contrast, the dual-accelerometer MWD system based in this article. This MWD system is characterized by
on inertial attitude measurement theory successfully two redundant accelerometers which are fixed at two
addresses this problem. At the same time, the credibil- different planes. To improve the measuring accuracy,
ity, which reflects the influence of electromagnetic the calculated results from two accelerometers are fused
interference on measuring accuracy, could be got by to get the final results of attitude angles. When pitch is
comparing the same parameters (roll, for example) close to 6 90°, the calculated results of roll from accel-
measured by magnetometer and accelerometer. Thus, erometer B are used as the final results. To reflect the
the developed MWD system obtains good anti- influence of electromagnetic interference, the concept
disturbance ability. As far as we can see, the low-cost of credibility is also provided.
14 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

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Declaration of conflicting interests offers significant enhancement in survey accuracy over the
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with highest performance MWD magnetic systems. Richard-
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this son, TX: Society of Petroleum Engineers.
article. 15. Silicon Labs. C8051F120 data short, October 2004,
http://www.sillabs.com/Support%20Documents/Techni-
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