Autonomous Interpretation of Rock Drill Cuttings

• Main Authors: Al-Qubaisi, Khalid Ali, Kanfar, Majed Fareed, Rayo, Lautaro
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 23.11.2023
• Subjects: EARTH DRILLING; EARTH DRILLING, e.g. DEEP DRILLING; FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS; MINING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR ASLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS

A computer-implemented method that autonomously performs rock drill cuttings interpretation is described herein. The method includes obtaining rock drill cuttings representations. The method also includes preprocessing the rock drill cuttings representations. The method also includes performing unsupervised image segmentation in order to obtain masked representations of such images discriminating rock types. The method also includes performing supervised learning through a custom Convolutional Neuronal Network using the segmented pictures as inputs and a continuous or discrete mineralogical or sedimentological variable of interest as the output. Additionally, the method includes autonomously predicting such mineralogical or sedimentological quantity from new rock drill cuttings pictures using the parameters of the unsupervised segmentation and the trained supervised model created for this purpose.