ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,291,930, issued on May 6, was assigned to TRANSOCEAN SEDCO FOREX VENTURES Ltd. (Hamilton, Bermuda).
"Drilling automation system" was invented by Jason Baker (Houston), Barry Braniff (Houston), Michael Coady (Houston), Shane McClaugherty (Houston), Scott McKaig (Houston) and Keith Boughton (Houston).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The system for automating well construction operations includes a plurality of sensors, such as a fingerboard latch position sensor for providing position of a fingerboard latch, a stick-up height sensor for determining a height of a portion of a tubular section extending from a well center, a pipe handler rotatio...