Pathway to fully autonomous field rigs is demonstrated by two complementary solutions from last year’s Drillbotics competition winners – TU Clausthal’s compact mini‑rig featuring a modular second‑generation surface‑actuation unit, and UMaT’s AI‑driven virtual rig, which autonomously generated anticollision trajectories. Automation spans the Python‑based digital‑twin architecture, real‑time analytics pipelines, advanced control and network protocol designs, ensemble ML for downhole sensor calibration, and semantic‑network interoperability via D‑WIS. The session concludes with live Q&A.
Hosted by the SPE R&D Technical Section and SPE Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section on 27 May 2025.