CAREER: Control of a Long and Curved String for Deep Underground Exploration

这项由学院早期职业发展计划(Career)基金资助的研究将提供与大系统建模和控制有关的新基础知识，该系统具有长而弯曲的弦状几何图形。这将导致深地下定向钻探系统的进步，影响到能源、环境和外层空间探索等国家战略领域。在能源方面，它将实现自动化定向钻探，以增强地热能源系统和非常规天然气生产。这将显著降低可再生能源和清洁能源的能源生产成本，更重要的是可以减少对环境的影响，增强安全生产。在环境研究方面，该项目将解决访问南极古冰芯的关键技术障碍，以评估大规模气候模式并预测未来的气候变化，如全球变暖的演变。在外层空间探测中，它将为控制钻探机器人到达火星上潜在的微生物生命迹象和水资源，完成火星探测的最终任务奠定基础。在这些应用中，定向钻井控制是具有挑战性的，因为很难避免地下深处由于振动和井筒地层相互作用而可能产生的不良工作条件。现有的定向钻进控制研究不能保证避免这些不利的作业条件。地质挑战和对更环保生产工艺的需求共同推动了更安全、更深入、更准确和更可靠的钻井工艺。除了这项研究，该项目还将通过新课程开发、教师教育、远程实验室设施开发和推广活动，在代表不足的学生群体中鼓励控制工程。该项目的研究目标是创建一个新的框架，控制具有长而曲线状几何形状的大系统，以避免深层地下勘探的不良操作条件。其成果包括一种利用独特的弦几何结构的新的面向控制的模型，以及一种可以解决复杂障碍的状态障碍避免控制的新方法。在建模方面，研究了一种新的混合格式，它可以将解析方法和数值解结合在一起，既能达到计算效率，又能达到高保真，从而使控制设计成为可能。在控制方面，研究了一种解决障碍物串级避障的新方法。这种方法首次能够系统地解决形状复杂的国家障碍，并可以将国家障碍规避控制的应用范围扩大到更多类型的障碍和系统(特别是具有高阶动力学的)。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The research funded by this Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant will contribute new fundamental knowledge related to modeling and control of a large-scale system with a long, curved string-like geometry. This will lead to advances in deep underground directional drilling systems impacting national strategic areas including energy, the environment and outer space exploration. In energy, it will enable automated directional drilling for enhanced geothermal energy systems and unconventional natural gas production. This will significantly reduce the cost of energy production of renewables and clean energy, and more importantly, can reduce environmental impact and enhance production safety. In environmental research, the project will address a critical technical barrier to accessing ancient ice cores in the South Pole, to evaluate large-scale climate patterns and predict future climate changes such as the evolution of global warming. In outer space exploration, it will build the fundamental foundation to control a drilling robot to reach potential signs of microbial life and water resources on Mars, to fulfill the ultimate mission of the Mars exploration. Directional drilling control in these applications is challenging, because potentially undesirable working conditions due to vibrations and wellbore formation interaction in the deep underground are difficult to avoid. Existing studies on the directional drilling control cannot ensure avoiding these undesired operating conditions. The geological challenge and the need for a more environment-friendly production process together urge safer, deeper, more accurate and reliable drilling process. Along with the research, this project will encourage controls engineering among underrepresented student groups through new curriculum development, teacher education, remote lab facilities development and outreach activities.The research goal of this project is to create a new framework of controlling a large-scale system with a long, curved string-like geometry to avoid undesired operating conditions for deep underground exploration. The outcome includes a novel control-oriented model by leveraging the unique string geometry, and a new method for state-barrier avoidance control that can address complex barriers. For modeling, a new hybrid scheme that can integrate an analytical approach with a numerical solution is researched , and can achieve both computation-efficiency and high fidelity to enable control design. For control, a novel method that resolves the barrier avoidance in a cascade fashion is researched. This method enables addressing state barriers with complex shape in a systematic way for the first time, and can broaden the range of applications of state-barrier avoidance control to more types of barriers and systems (especially with high order dynamics).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.