Design of underground sonde of a directional drilling locator system

Exact knowledge of the attitude is a fundamental factor in steerable directional drilling. This paper puts forward a method of determining the attitude angles like roll, pitch and azimuth with a combination with MEMS accelerometers and MEMS magnetometers, and describes the concrete design of underground sonde in detail. For taking benefit of MEMS technology and temperature calibration, the advantages of small size, low cost, and high reliability are achieved. Results show that the sonde we designed exhibits excellent performance, and it is well suited for measurement while drilling.