Carlson Software's DrillStar

DrillStar is Carlson Software's machine guidance product that is designed to work on drills in mining, civil, and construction applications providing cm-level accuracy. It enables drill operators to know their designed depth and location without the need for stakes and in blinding conditions. Accordingly, when work is done at night, when a surveyor may not be available, production can continue with confidence. A few unique features of DrillStar include: dynamic field design of simple or complex patterns; on-the-fly pattern layouts one hole at a time; real-time survey reports to office while drilling; and customizable lists to track anything possible.

General Features

Guidance to drilling positionsDrillStar is ideal for real-time drilling applications, since drill operators can navigate without stakes, even in blinding conditions. Instead, they glance at a screen mounted in the cab and respond to depth and position information. The days of having to layout patterns on the ground before drilling or waiting on design plans is over. The employee is empowered by giving them instant feedback on their design performance and allowing them to drill to the proper depth even on rough terrain without survey stakes. The dependency on surveyors is broken and the exact drill depth is provided for the position. Excessive movement and tramming of the machine is eliminated, as well as, over or under drilling, which ultimately means less maintenance and cost.

Accurate blast patternsDrillStar will guide your drill to each hole and track the depth, location, operator, drillability, and any other user-defined information desired. Blast designs can be given to the drill, designed in the field, or completed on-the-fly one hole at a time. These blast designs combined with plan maps, multiple design surfaces, and bottom of hole designs provide the driller with a complete 3-D view of the drill hole and surrounding blast area.

The system is comprised of a dual-antenna GPS with cm-level accuracy and a rugged touch-screen computer. Currently, there is support for vertical drilling only, but testing is in progress on angle drilling. The greatest benefit of DrillStar is found when drilling angle holes, but savings are also found in vertical drilling. The most notable benefits in vertical drilling include: elimination of location marking before drilling; resultant uniform patterns from knowing the exact drill bit location; and automated reporting of "as-drilled" locations. Uniform patterns produce even and proper breakage for digging equipment, require the least amount of explosives for proper breakage, and result in the minimum drilled footage. Less footage drilled means less maintenance, less time to drill area, and lower costs.

When dealing with angled holes, since the GPS system provides a highly accurate reference, angled holes can be correctly oriented. Moreover, the GPS system can account for variations in the height of the bench, so the toe of the hole is correctly located. Thus, a more accurate pattern is drilled with consequently improved consistency of fragmentation, as is the case with vertical drilling too. During angle drilling, DrillStar aides in preventing the extremely dangerous situation of breakthrough on the face or of leaving an improper amount of burden.

Stored information can be used to determine drill productivity, model the ore-body, and satisfy regulatory requirements. In addition, unexpected items, such as water or rocks, can be logged to aide the blasters when they load the hole. When DrillStar is combined with SiteNet and Telescope, the drill location can be viewed in the office in real-time. The "as-drilled" plans can also be transferred back to the office and be used to assist in designing the blast or to satisfy statutory filing requirements.

Benefits

Field Staked Accuracies

Field staked accuracy
The image to the right shows a test where the designed drill hole was marked on the ground with a large 'X' and the driller navigated to it and started to drill. The distance between the actual position and designed position was approximately one foot. When drill holes are offset like this, the result is larger and smaller burden and spacing distances than needed for optimum fragmentation. DrillStar, using GPS, provides tighter control than a surveyor marking positions.

Main Menu

Main menuFrom the main screen, the Drill selection is the item used the most. It provides the views for the operator to easily navigate and log holes.

Simple and complex blast patterns can be designed in the field by the operator or in the office by the engineers and surveyors from the tools menu.

Project files can be defined, eliminating file selection errors.

Drill Screen

In the DrillStar main screen, the plan view is displayed in the middle of the screen. At the top of the screen several items are shown, including: GPS status, elevation, depth, project name, distance from last hole or to next hole, and if in navigation mode, the direction to get to next hole. The compass in the upper right corner shows current drill orientation, north orientation, and orientation to get to next hole if in navigation mode. The lower menu panel allows the user to: zoom-in, zoom-out, drill, and monitor status numerically.

Drill screenIf a drill pattern has been provided to the drill, then little yellow squares are drawn to indicate the designed hole positions. When the drill is within the set tolerances, then the target indicator twirls to show that it is acceptable to drill. Once the hole is drilled, the actual position of the drill hole is shown with a cyan blue 'X' and the open yellow square changes to solid cyan. The design and actual positions aide in evaluating drilling performance.

If the navigation mode is set to field points, there will be no predesigned pattern displayed with yellow squares. Instead, as drilling progresses, the solid cyan squares are drawn with the cyan 'X' in the center of each one. This mode allows for on-the-fly layouts one hole at a time. The circles on the image above are used to properly locate the next drill hole. There is even a setting for staggered patterns. In the image above, the pattern displayed and the circles shown do not have the same burden and spacing settings.

Design Surfaces

Design surfacesElevation differences can be determined from a Flat Pad Elevation or from an existing Design Surface Model. Entering an elevation allows for the operator to work without needing a surface designed by engineering software. By giving the operator this tool, if the machine is moved to a new working area that requires a change in elevation, the operator has the ability to continue working and reduce downtime.

Depth Screen

Depth screenThis screen appears when drill is chosen from the lower menu of the navigation screen. The user is prompted to drill to a specific depth. If more than one surface is loaded, as shown in the example to the left, then geologic surfaces can be tracked and modified. Currently, this is done manually, but if integrated with a depth sensor and a few other sensors, this can be automated.

From the add/edit selection, unexpected items can also be tracked such as rocks or hard zones. This information can be used by the blaster to properly charge or deck the hole.

Blast Pattern Layout

Blast pattern layoutThere are several methods of getting drill patterns into DrillStar for operator use. Patterns can be designed in the office (advised for advanced layouts), in the field (simple and semi-complex layouts), or one hole at a time in the field (more dynamic approach for just in time drilling and blasting). The field layouts can be either square or staggered and rectangular or variable. The variable layouts allow for a randomness in either spacing, burden, or both.

So, if a set distance was necessary from the face, but the pattern needed to be straight by row three, this complexity could be designed in on-the-fly. If drilling one hole at a time, there is a guide that will display as the drill navigates, so that the operator can see how far away they are from any of the surrounding holes. This enables the operator to drill the hole at the appropriate distance to achieve optimum blasting potential.

Component Integration

Several components can be added to DrillStar to enhance the product.

• Tilt sensors provide more accurate positions and elevations. The use of tilt sensors is advised for angle drilling.
• Depth sensors indicate where the drill bit is in relation to the desired bottom of hole. Combined with other drilling sensors, the information can be correlated to the geology and aide in geologic modeling.