Systems, methods, and machines for detecting and mitigating drill stalls with an automated foundation component driving and assembly machine

Abstract

An automated driving and assembly machine for driving foundation components, such as screw anchors, and for assembling foundations, such as truss foundations, using the driven screw anchors. The machine has a rotary driver and a hydraulic drilling tool. Sensors monitoring hydraulic pressure at the drilling tool will take incremental pressure readings during a driving operation. If the readings become clustered around a relative maximum, the controller will pause the driving operation and begin a drill stall mitigation sub-routine. This may involve retracting the drill and then hammering and releasing pressurized air to clear the stall. Clearance of the stall may also be derived by the controller from pressure readings.

1 . A machine for driving foundation components comprising:
 a base machine;   an adjustable mast attached to the base machine;   a rotary driver, movably attached to the mast and controllable to drive a foundation component into underlying ground to a target embedment depth;   a drilling tool movably attached to the mast and controllable to operate a drill rod through the rotary driver; and   a control system including a controller executing a control program for automatically controlling the rotary driver and the drilling tool to drive a foundation component to a desired embedment depth, wherein the control program contains program code causing the controller to detect and mitigate a stall of the drilling tool while driving a foundation component to the target embedment depth.   
     
     
         2 . The machine according to  claim 1 , wherein the program code causing the controller to detect and mitigate a stall of the drilling tool comprises program code that instructs the controller to monitor hydraulic pressure sensor data comprising a series of sequential pressure readings from within the drilling tool to detect a stall of the drilling tool. 
     
     
         3 . The machine according to  claim 2 , wherein the program code that instructs the controller to monitor hydraulic pressure sensor data from within the drilling tool causes the controller to determine if the hydraulic pressure sensor data indicates a distribution of values over a pre-determined time period that are clustered around a relative maximum pressure reading. 
     
     
         4 . The machine according to  claim 3 , wherein clustered around a relative maximum pressure reading comprises determining a relative maximum and from the hydraulic pressure sensor data and determining if during the predetermined time period most pressure readings are within 10 PSI of the relative maximum value. 
     
     
         5 . The machine according to  claim 4 , wherein most comprises at least 90% of the pressure readings. 
     
     
         6 . The machine according to  claim 1 , wherein the program code causing the controller to detect and mitigate a stall of the drilling tool comprises program code that causes the controller to pause driving the foundation component to clear the stall prior to resuming driving the foundation component to the target embedment depth. 
     
     
         7 . The machine according to  claim 6 , wherein clearing the stall comprises controlling the drilling tool to temporarily withdrawal the drill bit and then to control the drilling tool to advance the drill bit ahead of the foundation component and ejecting pressurized air from the drill bit to clear the stall. 
     
     
         8 . The machine according to  claim 6 , wherein the program code further causes the controller to control the rotary driver to resume driving the foundation component once the stall is cleared until the foundation component reaches the target embedment depth. 
     
     
         9 . The machine according to  claim 8 , where the program code causes the controller to determine that a stall has been cleared by monitoring hydraulic pressure sensor data while clearing the stall and determining that the stall has cleared when the hydraulic pressure sensor data is no longer clustered around a relative maximum reading. 
     
     
         10 . A stall mitigation system for an automated foundation component embedment machine comprising:
 a controller executing stored program code for controlling the rotary driver and drilling tool to embed a foundation component into underlying ground;   a plurality of control nodes; and   a plurality of sensor nodes, wherein the program code causes the controller to control the control nodes to begin an automated operation to embed a foundation component into the underlying ground, and, based on an output of at least one of the sensor nodes, to determined that a stall of at least one of the control nodes has occurred while performing the automated operation to embed the foundation component.   
     
     
         11 . The system according to  claim 10 , wherein the stored program code causes the controller to determine that a stall of at least one of the control nodes has occurred when the output of the at least one sensor node indicates a distribution of sequential pressure readings taken by the at least one sensor node over a pre-determined time period are clustered around a relative maximum value. 
     
     
         12 . The system according to  claim 11 , wherein the output of the at least one sensor nodes indicates a distribution of pressure readings over a pre-determined time period that are clustered around a relative maximum value when at least 90-percent of the readings are within 10 PSI of that relative maximum value during the pre-determined time period. 
     
     
         13 . The system according to  claim 10 , wherein in response to determining that a stall of at least one of the control nodes has occurred, the stored program code causes the controller to pause embedment of the foundation component and to control at least one of the control nodes to clear the stall. 
     
     
         14 . The system according to  claim 10 , wherein the at least one control nodes is a hydraulic drilling tool. 
     
     
         15 . The system according to  claim 14 , where the stored program code causes the controller to control the hydraulic drilling tool to perform an automated mitigation process to clear the stall. 
     
     
         16 . The system according to  claim 15 , wherein the automated mitigation process to clear the stall comprises controlling the drilling tool to partially withdrawal the drill bit and to advance the drill ahead of the foundation component while ejecting pressurized air from the drill bit until the stall is cleared, such condition being determined by the controller when the sequential pressure readings taken by the at least one sensor node are no longer clustered around a relative maximum. 
     
     
         17 . A method of controlling an automated machine for driving foundation components comprising:
 with a digital controller communicatively coupled to the automated machine, executing stored program code causing the controller to control the automated machine to attempt to embed a foundation component into underlying ground to a target embedment depth; and   with the digital controller, executing stored program code causing the controller to monitor an output of at least one pressure sensor connected to a component of the automated machine to determine if a stall of the component has occurred and to mitigate the stall before continuing to attempt to embed the foundation component.   
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein executing stored program code causing the controller to control the automated machine to attempt to embed a foundation component into underlying ground to a target embedment depth comprises controlling with the digital controller at least a rotary driver, a drive train, and a drilling tool to attempt to embed the foundation component. 
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the stored program code causes the controller to detect the occurrence of a stall by monitoring an output of at least one pressure sensor sensing hydraulic pressure at the drilling tool and determining that a stall has occurred if the output indicates a distribution of sequential pressure readings over a pre-determined time period that are clustered around a relative maximum pressure reading. 
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 19 , wherein clustered around comprises determining a relative maximum pressure reading from the sensor data during the predetermined time period and determining if at least a 90 percent of the values are within 10 PSI of that maximum pressure reading.