Patent ID: 8033345

Claim:
A drilling assembly for drilling pipe into a drilling surface using a drill bit, said drilling assembly comprising: (a) a power unit for supplying power to the drilling assembly; (b) a thrust frame adapted to be moved between a position substantially parallel to the drilling surface and a position substantially perpendicular to the drilling surface; (c) a means for moving the thrust frame; (d) a rotary and carriage assembly mounted on the thrust frame, said rotary and carriage assembly being adapted to apply rotational, thrust and pull-back forces to the drill pipe; (e) a microprocessor, said microprocessor being adapted to regulate an advance rate of and control a load on the drill bit based upon a level of mud pressure in a mud circuit in the drilling assembly and in response to a mechanical resistance experienced by the drill bit; wherein the drilling assembly is adapted to drill pipe into the drilling surface at any angle relative to the drilling surface between substantially parallel to the drilling surface and substantially perpendicular to the drilling surface.