Automation of CRD100 seafloor drill

The main focus of this paper is to present control and automation aspects of the remotely operated CRD100 seafloor drill. The CRD100 is a fourth generation, state-of-the-art robotic seafloor drill that is directly deployed onto the seabed. It is designed to drill, case, core, and collect geotechnical sampling data to a depth of 65m below the seabed at 3000m beneath the water surface. The system must perform a number of repetitive tasks such as retrieving drilling tools from a rack as well as connecting and disconnecting tools. In order to reduce potential operational errors, as well as to decrease the operating time, the CRD100 was designed to automate these drilling tasks with fail-safe logic. The NASA Standard Reference Model for Telerobotics (NASREM) was chosen as the basis for the automation due to its modular, flexible, and easily expandable architecture. As well, the CRD100 drill provides an efficient Human-Machine Interface (HMI) between the operator(s) stationed on the surface vessel and the remote drill. The HMI allows both autonomous and manual control of the drill and displays a variety of real-time measurement data for monitoring the drilling process. The HMI has also been designed to allow pairs of operators to seamlessly hand-off tasks between each other and to log all pertinent data for later analysis.