Patent ID: 8453759
Filing Date: 2013-06-04
Classification: E21B,E21D

Abstract:
1. A method of determining a direction of a drilling pattern, the method comprising: downloading into a control unit a tunnel line of a tunnel to be excavated, the tunnel line being determined in a project coordinate system of a tunnel worksite; downloading into the control unit a drilling pattern determining at least a navigation plane and a coordinate system of the drilling pattern; determining a drilling site for the control unit and arranging a local coordinate system at the drilling site such that one of its axes points in a drilling direction; positioning the navigation plane of the drilling pattern at the drilling site; positioning a rock drilling rig at the drilling site and connecting the coordinate systems with one another by navigation; performing necessary coordinate system transformations from the project coordinate system to the coordinate system of the drilling pattern; communicating a length of a round to be drilled to the control unit; determining a shape of the tunnel line over a section of a next round to be drilled; arranging a start point of the drilling pattern on the tunnel line; determining a distance corresponding with the length of the round to be drilled, starting from the start point, and positioning an end point of the round at the particular location of the tunnel line; directing the drilling pattern such that it points from the start point to the end point; and performing coordinate system transformations, taking into account the determined direction of the drilling pattern, and calculating coordinates and directions for holes according to the drilling pattern for drilling, wherein the tunnel line is predetermined and the method further comprises using the predetermined tunnel line to determine a direction of each of a plurality of successive rounds.