AUTOMATIC DRILL PIPE COUPLING DETECTION CONTROL SYSTEM

Abstract AUTOMATIC DRILL PIPE COUPLING DETECTION CONTROL SYSTEM A system (100) for automatic detection of drill pipe coupling on a drilling machine (10) is disclosed. The system (100) may include a rotary head (26), a drill pipe (32), a display (38), and a controller (104). The controller (104) may be configured to: automatically identify a coupling or decoupling condition of the drill pipe (32); monitor motion and forces associated with the rotary head (26) during a coupling or decoupling action of the drill pipe (32); automatically identify a fully coupled or fully decoupled condition of the coupling or decoupling action based on the monitored motion and forces of the rotary head (26); terminate the coupling action based on the identification of the fully coupled or fully decoupled condition; and update the display (38) to indicate the fully coupled or fully decoupled condition of the drill pipe (32). 1/6 18-1039AU01 16 -24 10 -36 40-1 42 44 *100 F42 fr 30- - FIG. 1 *30