Vector Based Kinematic Closed-Loop Attitude Control-System for Directional Drilling

An attitude control system is presented here, where the attitude of a drilling tool is represented by a unit vector and hence non-linearities of Euler angles are avoided. It is shown in simulation that the control system has a stable orbit about the desired attitude in the presence of drop and turn rate biases, and with a spatial delay due to the sensors. The attitude controller is embedded into a way-point tracking control system where it is demonstrated that the controller tracks the position and attitude of each way-point and minimizes the strain energy along the path.