EP1466076B1

EP1466076B1 - Data transmission system

Info

Publication number: EP1466076B1
Application number: EP03701197A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mikael RAMSTRÖM; Lars SANDSTRÖM; Roland Pettersson; Jan Knutsson
Original assignee: Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB
Current assignee: Epiroc Rock Drills AB
Priority date: 2002-01-14
Filing date: 2003-01-14
Publication date: 2008-02-27
Anticipated expiration: 2023-01-14
Also published as: AU2003202187B2; CA2471508C; CA2471508A1; AU2003202187A1; ZA200404738B; WO2003058030A1; EP1466076A1; DE60319340D1; ATE387566T1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system, for transmission of data between drilling equipment (20) and remote location means arranged to be connected to a communication system (24; 41). The system comprises (first) server means (22), in communication with the drilling equipment (20), arranged to extract data from the drilling equipment (20) and convert this data to a format suitable for presentation to a user (29, 30) at the remote location (26) by means of a general purpose program, and which (first) server means (22) is arranged to be connected to the communication system (24; 41), such that the remote location means and the (first) server means (22) may communicate via the communication system (24; 41). The invention also relates to drilling equipment.

Description

Field of the invention

The invention relates to a system for transmission of data between drilling equipment and remote location means of the kind defined in the preamble of claim 1.
The invention further relates to a drilling equipment of the kind defined in the preamble of claim 13.

Background of the invention

Rock drilling equipment may be used in a number of applications, for example in tunnelling, underground mining, rock reinforcement and raise boring.
The equipment used in these applications are big, complex and often very expensive (See for example US 610 1445 ). Further, the equipment often work in exposed environments with tasks that in short time give rise to wear and limited functionality.
Therefore this equipment require regularly service and control. Rock drilling equipment often has an internal computerised control system that among other collect status information for a number of functions. This status information may for example comprise oil temperatures, hydraulic pressures, drilling rate etc. The control system may further create event and error logs in order to enable subsequent analysis of what has happened and when. The control system may also collect run statistics.
The status information is retrieved by docking the rock drilling equipment to a service computer or connecting an instrument to the drilling equipment, whereby the status information is read off. The drilling equipment may also be connected to a local wireless network at a work site, for example a mine, which enables wireless transmission of the status information to an equipment service centre.
The retrieved status information may be used by the service personnel in the service centre to determine needed service.
The retrieved information may further be used by the manufacturers service personnel, remotely located, preferably at the manufacturers premises, to perform analysis that may aid further development of the equipment and determine needs for control system updates and/or replacement of parts. The owner of the equipment may also use the status information in work planning and follow-ups. Another use of the status information is to enable a leasing company to charge for actual use of the equipment.
A problem with existing systems, however, is that it may take a long time for the remotely located parts to get access to the status information, with the direct consequence that the equipment may not be used in an optimal way, and a risk that the status information is obsolete once it arrives to the remote location.
A further problem is that the retrieved status information requires specially designed tools that often are very expensive in order to perform the analysis.
Thus there exists a need to provide a system that allows quick access to status information for a remotely located part, and that further provides the status information in a way that obviates the need for specially designed tools.

Summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for transmission of data between drilling equipment and remote location means that solves the above mentioned problems.
This object is achieved by a system for transmission of data between drilling equipment and remote location means according to the characterized portion of claim 1.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide drilling equipment for use in a system for transmission of data between drilling equipment and a remote location that solves the above mentioned problems.
This object is achieved by drilling equipment according to the characterized portion of claim 13.
The system for transmission of data between drilling equipment and remote location means comprises (first) server means, in communication with the drilling equipment, arranged to extract data from the drilling equipment and convert this data to a format suitable for presentation to a user at the remote location by means of a general purpose program, and which (first) server means is arranged to be connected to the communication system, such that the remote location means and the (first) server means may communicate via the communication system.
This enables easy access of status information for a user at a remote location and without a need for expensive and specially designed tools.
The system may utilise a standardised data communication method to communicate data between the drilling equipment and the remote location means. This gives a system that is easily implemented, for example in an existing infra structure.
Further, utilising a standardised data communication method for communication between the remote location and the drilling equipment provides an inexpensive and simple way to implement communication between drilling equipment and remote location means.
The standardised data communication method may for example be Ethernet or Token ring. These are well known methods and provide an inexpensive way to implement remote control of drilling rigs.
The general purpose program may be a web browser. This allows that free and wide spread software may be used to retrieve data from the drilling equipment at the remote location.
The (first) server means may be integrated in the drilling equipment, and may further be connected to a modem for enabling communication with the remote location means. This enables direct communication between the drilling equipment and the remote location means. This allows for a user at the remote location to always have the opportunity to retrieve valid status information.
The system may further comprise second server means, located near the drilling equipment, and arranged to receive status information from the first server means. The second server means may further be arranged to receive data from the first server means at regular intervals and/or at initiation by either of the server means.
This enables that reasonably "fresh" status information always is available for a user at a remote location independent of if the drilling equipment is disconnected from the system.
Further the use of second server means allow centralisation of status information for any number of drilling equipment.
The transmitted data may constitute status information, for example consisting of one or more of the group: oil temperatures, hydraulic pressures, drilling rates, event and error logs and run statistics, video and/or sound data.
The system may be arranged to authenticate the user prior to presenting data to the user. This prevents unauthorised persons from accessing the drilling equipment.
The system may be arranged to transmit data from the remote location means to the first server means. This enables the possibility to supply e.g. new software to a control system of the drilling equipment.

Brief description of the drawings

Fig. 1 shows a control system in a drilling equipment.
Fig. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 shows another embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 shows yet another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed description of preferred embodiments

Fig. 1 depicts an example of the structure of a control system 1 of a rock drilling equipment. The control system uses a CAN bus 2 (Controller Area Network), which is a two wire serial bus, suitable for use in particularly exposed environments. A MMI-interface 3, used by an operator to communicate with the control system, is connected to the bus. The control system also includes a central unit 4 connected to the bus that controls and supervises the system. A number of I/O- units 5, 6, 7 are connected to the bus for communication with different parts of the rock drilling equipment. These I/O- units 5, 6, 7 may for example be used to provide control signals to the means that control movement of the equipment. These means may constitute of engines controlling advances of the equipment, or, when the rock drilling equipment comprises one or more drilling booms, control of the movement and function of the drilling booms.
A set of sensors may further be connected to the I/O-units. These sensors provide information, such as oil temperatures, drilling progress, position of the drilling booms etc., to the control system.
The central unit continuously supervises the system and collects work statistics and creates event and error logs.
This collected and created status information may be retrieved by service personnel by logging on to the equipment or connecting a separate unit to the equipment. Alternatively, the equipment may be connected to a local wireless system, whereby the status information may be transmitted to a service center to allow service personnel to check the status of the equipment.
The retrieved information may further be distributed to the manufacturer's service personnel, located at the manufacturer's premises, to allow analysis that may aid further development of the equipment and determine needs for control system updates and/or replacement of parts. The owner of the equipment may also use the status information in work planning and follow-ups. Another use of the status information is to enable a leasing company to charge for actual use of the equipment.
It is an object of the invention is to facilitate access to the status information from a remote location.
Fig. 2 shows a first embodiment of the invention. A drilling equipment 20, comprising a control system, 21 is shown. The drilling equipment further comprises a server 22, connected to the control system 21 and connected to means 23 for enabling connection of the drilling equipment to a communication system 24, extending from a work site 25 located in a first country, to a remote location 26, for example a manufacturers service center, located in a second country. At the remote location 26, means, such as office computers 27, 28, are operated by operators 29, 30.
The server 22 preferably is a web server, supporting the HTTP protocol(Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which is a commonly known protocol for communication between web servers and web browsers), and includes means, such as a program, to convert status information to a format suitable for viewing by a web browser. The server extracts status information from the control system and converts this information to for example HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) or XML (Extensible Markup Language) pages.
The status information may, as described above, constitute of oil temperatures, hydraulic pressures, drilling rates, event and error logs, run statistics etc.
A person 29, 30, working at the remote location 26 and wishing to retrieve status information from the drilling equipment 20 starts a web browser application on his/her computer 29, 30 and enters a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for the server 22 in the drilling equipment 20. The web browser application then communicates with the server 22 and presents a web page to the user 29, 30 wherefrom desired status information may be downloaded.
The present invention thus enables easy access of status information for a user at a remote location and without a need for expensive and specially designed tools. For example, a lease company will consequently always be able to invoice customers for actual use of rented equipment. The invention further has the advantage that the retrieved status information easily can be copied to other programs, such as spreadsheets, for statistical analyse.
When the user first enters the web page of the drilling equipment the user 29, 30 preferably must be authenticated by entering a password to get access to the server 22, thus preventing unauthorised persons to access the drilling equipment. This is particularly important when the system also is used for transmission of data to the drilling equipment, as will be described below.
The communication system 24 preferably is an Ethernet network, and at least parts of it may constitute parts of the Internet. Ethernet is a common standardized method used for data transmission over the Internet and in different computer environments such as offices. Instead of forming part of the Internet, the Ethernet link between the drilling equipment and the remote location may constitute part of an Intranet for e.g. a mining company. It shall, however, be understood that other methods than Ethernet for communicating data may be used as well.
The embodiment in fig. 2 requires that the server 22 is in continuous communication with the communication system 24 in order to always admit access to the status information collected by the server 22. This might, however, be difficult in work sites that lack local wireless communication systems, and where the drilling equipment must be physically connected to a node in the communication system.
In an alternative embodiment, shown in fig. 3, the status information collected by the server 22 is therefore periodically transmitted to a second server 40 in a local area network 41. In this case, the second server 40 has a fixed connection to the communication system and a URL. This enables that reasonably "fresh" status information always is available for a user 29, 30 at a remote location 26. Further, the server 40 may comprise status information for any number of, or all of the server equipped equipment at the work site, since there might be several equipment at the work site arranged with a server according to the present invention. The transmission to the server means may be carried out in a number of ways. For example, both the server 22 and the server 40 may comprise a connection to a respective modem 42, 43. The modems 42, 43 may be arranged to allow wireless communication. In this way the status information may be transmitted at regularly intervals to the server 40. Alternatively, the status information may be transmitted when a substantial change in the operation of the drilling equipment has occurred. The transmission may be initiated by either of the two servers. For example, the server 40 may initiate a transfer when a user 29, 30 at a remote location requests status information for a particular drilling equipment 20.
In another embodiment, shown in fig. 4, the office computer 50 is equipped with a modem 51, thus enabling direct communication between the drilling equipment 20 and the office computer. This allows for a user at the remote location to always have the opportunity to retrieve valid status information.
The server means in the drilling equipment in fig. 3 and 4 may of course as well be connected to means for enabling connection of the drilling equipment to a communication system as in the embodiment described in fig. 2. In this way, the drilling equipment in fig. 3 and 4 comprises the functionality of the drilling equipment in fig. 2 as well.
In yet another alternative embodiment the drilling equipment only has capabilities to transfer the status information in its original format to a local network at the work site, whereby the server means performing the status information conversion is centrally placed at the work site for collecting and converting status information for one or more equipment at the work site, and which server means is arranged to communicate with remote location means, such as an office computer, via a modem and/or a communication system.
The above described embodiments have been described with only one remote location. There might, of course, be several remote locations having contemporary access to the drilling equipment, for example manufacturers premises, a leasing company and customers main office as well as customers local offices.
Since different persons with different needs accesses the drilling equipment it is preferred that, in order to get access to the status information, the user must enter a password and/or an identity. This allows that only subsets of the information may be shown to a specific user. For example, if a user is only interested in failure reports, his or her interface may be set to only show the information of interest. The information transmitted and shown to a specific user may also be dependent on the capacity of the user's terminal. If the user only has access to a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) with a rather limited bandwidth, the user may use a particular identity when using this terminal, enabling that only a subset of the information may be transmitted to it.
Apart from the above described status information, the server 22 may also make other data available for an external user. For example, the drilling equipment may be provided with a camera (not shown) and/or a microphone (not shown). This is particularly suitable for remotely controlled equipment for enabling convenient supervision means. The information from the camera and/or microphone may however also be collected by the server and arranged to be presented on the web page. It is thus possible to allow for example service personnel in another country to view and listen to the working equipment via an ordinary computer with a web browser. This might be particularly useful when the equipment exhibits a malfunction, for which the local service personnel cannot identify the source and an expert from the manufacturer must be consulted, since this audio and video information may be enough for the expert to solve the problem and thus avoid an expensive journey to a far away mine or the like.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the system further is arranged to enable transmission of data to the drilling equipment as well as from it. A problem with the presently used systems is that when a manufacturer of drilling equipment releases a new software version for a control system, this software must be stored on a code memory board that has to be hand carried to the equipment and physically plugged into the equipment in order to perform an update of the control system. At the best the new software may be supplied to local service personnel in the particular country in digital form and only has to be hand carried from there on, which still might be several hundred kilometres. At the worst, a person has to physically carry the code memory board half around the world in order to make the new software available in the drilling equipment. This manual handling is a severe disadvantage and may result in substantial travel costs for the manufacturer. The present invention overcomes this problem.
The server in this case preferably also includes an FTP-server, and is thus capable of file transfer with the commonly known FTP-protocol (File Transfer Protocol). In this case, the web page in the server may include links to an upload area in the server. This possibility to upload data to the drilling equipment enables the possibility to supply new software to the control system of the drilling equipment. The uploaded software is preferably stored in a dedicated location in the memory of the drilling equipment so that the actual replacement can be initiated and supervised by local service personnel that are able to restore the system if the new software malfunctions. In this embodiment, it is particularly important that an uploading user must identify him/her so that upload of unauthorized, possible erroneous, software is avoided.
The above described embodiment is of course not limited to upload of new software for the control system, but other data, such as function parameter settings and/or personal settings of an operator, may be uploaded as well.
The invention has been described as converting the status data to a format suitable for viewing by a web browser. The status data may, however, also be converted to any other format suitable for a general purpose program that is available to the public and arranged to run on a standard computer platform.

Claims

System, for transmission of data between drilling equipment (20) and remote location means arranged to be connected to a communication system (24; 41), wherein
- the system comprises first server means (22), in communication with the drilling equipment (20), arranged to extract data from the drilling equipment (20) and convert this data to a format suitable for presentation to a user (29, 30) at the remote location (26) by means of a general purpose program, and

- which first server means (22) is arranged to be connected to the communication system (24; 41), such that the remote location means and the first server means (22) may communicate via the communication system (24; 41), characterised in that the first server means (22) is integrated in the drilling equipment (20).
System according to claim 1, characterised in that that the communication system (24; 41) utilise a standardised data communication method to communicate data between the drilling equipment (20) and the remote location means.
System as claimed in claim 2, wherein said standardised data communication method is one of the following: Ethernet, Token ring.
System according to any of the claims 1-3, characterised in that the general purpose program is a web browser.
System according to claim 1, characterised in that the remote location means and the drilling equipment (20) may communicate via the communication system (24; 41).
System according to claim 1 or 6, characterised in that the (first) server means (22) is connected to a modem (42) for enabling communication with the remote location means.
System according to claim 6, characterised in that the system further comprises second server means (40), located near the drilling equipment (20), and arranged to receive status information from the first server means (22).
System according to claim 7, characterised in that the second server means (40) is arranged to receive data from the first server means (22) at regular intervals and/or at initiation by either of the server means.
System according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the data constitutes status information consisting of one or more of the group: oil temperatures, hydraulic pressures, drilling rates, event and error logs and run statistics, video and/or sound data.
System according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the system is arranged to authenticate the user prior to presenting data to the user.
System according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the system is arranged to transmit data from the remote location means to the first server means (22).
Drilling equipment (20), characterised in that it comprises server means (22) according to any of the claims 1-11.