The 2021 Phase II test for Group A (Virtual Rig) was held on June 28th. Three teams were able to fight through the pandemic and its continued fallout: cancelled classes, closed labs and no face-to-face student meetings. Of the 21 teams who registered in Group A last fall, only 6 submitted a Phase I report in December. Three teams dropped out during the spring, leaving three final competitors at the end of Phase II: UofC, UMaT, and UiS. The Drillbotics committee was pleased to see teams with undergrads with little or no training in modeling achieve considerable progress towards the very difficult task of simulating the rig and the directional drilling process. For teams with grad students, the Drillbotics challenge made for interesting theses. For all the team members, the integration of a number of modules into a comprehensive model was very challenging. We wish to congratulate all three teams for the excellent work they did this year. And this does not minimize the hard work of the other three teams who also deserve our thanks and recognition.
Congratulations to the team of students from the University of Stavanger as the winning team for Group A this year. Led by Luis Saavedra, the team also includes Rishyank Chevuri, Melissa Magalhaes, Fazlul Haque, and Miguel Fernandez plus Samiul Ehsan and Renan Ruiz. Dr. Dan Sui is their faculty advisor.
UiS provided a complete model with directional drilling specific considerations such as drilling target tolerances and positional uncertainty. They exceeded the judges’ expectations with their web interface that included dedicated modeling modules, as well as data visualizations that emulated “real time” drilling traces. The Drillbotics challenge committee is eager to see the next evolution of the UiS model that might include even more considerations for real-world unpredictability and variability.
