Patent ID: 7231989

Claim:
A method of controlling rock drilling, the method comprising: drilling rock with a rock drilling apparatus including a carrier, a feeding beam, a rock drill movable with respect to the feeding beam, and a control unit for controlling the rock drilling, and the rock drilling having adjustable operating parameters including at least one of impact power, impact pressure, feed force, feed pressure, feed flow, feed rate, rotation torque, rate of rotation, rotation pressure, rotation flow, flushing pressure, and flushing flow, providing a memory of the control unit with default settings for drilling, measuring an operation of the apparatus during drilling, and adjusting at least one operating parameter of drilling to accomplish a desired control operation, said adjusting step including: providing an operating system of the control unit with at least two simultaneously active control modes with different control strategies, each control mode determining at least one target criterion to be measured during drilling, a threshold value for a measurement result of said at least one target criterion, and at least one adjustable operating parameter, prioritizing one control mode over the other control modes such that an affect of the prioritized control mode increases and simultaneously affects of the other control modes diminish, and calculating, based on the measurement results of said at least one target criterion, control values for the operating parameters to be adjusted in the control unit in order to automatically control the drilling such that the control strategy of the prioritized control mode is weighted relative to the other control modes.