Drilling systems automation needs to deliver better wells. Better wells are wells that provide lower cost and higher value throughout their lifecycle. There are many factors that need to be balanced when drilling through the reservoir section including more reservoir, less impairment, less porpoising, lower tortuosity and more. Automated systems drilling reservoirs will need to maximize value and minimize life cycle cost impact from multiple factors in real time. Can we define what better wells are and can we program automation agents to deliver them?

In the recent SPE Live withJohn de W and John Mac; Eric van Oort asked "There has been a lot of talk about the issues with human factors and HMI's, but there appears to be limited real progress on resolving these issues - dialogue rarely goes beyond stating "it is an issue". What is the latest on this (e.g. the strengths of combining automation's sensitivity with human specificity) to benefit well construction, and how are DSATS, ART etc. helping to make some real progress?" We responded: Hi Eric, good question. There are actually a few topics here, among them the physical real-estate needed for any HMI (we can’t just add yet another screen for the Driller to ignore), the actual content of any HMI, and the “management of change” issue. We tend to lump all of these along with situational awareness into “human factors.” What we can say is that these issues are being addressed by individual companies as they bring systems to market. The workable result is often considerably different than what was originally proposed, covers perhaps one aspect rather than the integrated system, and is delivered by an individual player rather than the industry. We have a lot to learn from other industries that are farther along in development than we are as one major operator discovered when they pulled midstream experts into their automation initiative. It is certainly an area where DSATS could provide some insight. What do you. think, is it time for DSATS to garner insights from other industries and develop a guide for Human Factors (or better still Human Systems Integration)? We made a strong start in the DSA Roadmap with the Human Systems Integration section - https://dsaroadmap.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/11-of-14-Human-Systems-Integration-190531.pdf Have a read before posting a response!