Patent ID: 8220564

Claim:
A method of switching horizontal directional drilling procedures during bore path turning, comprising: identifying a hierarchal arrangement of a plurality of different boring procedures utilizing different boring techniques, the hierarchy arrangement representing boring procedures of increasing ability to bore through harder soil while changing a trajectory of a boring tool; boring a first leg of a curved bore path using a boring tool connected to a drill rig by a drill string, the first leg being bored using a first boring procedure of the plurality of different boring procedures; monitoring a plurality of boring parameters during boring of the first leg, the plurality of boring parameters comprising: torsional pressure of the drill string; rotational travel of the drill string; hydraulic pressure; and axial displacement; and switching from boring the first leg of the curved bore path using the first boring procedure to boring a second leg using a second boring procedure of the plurality of boring procedures, the switch based on one or more of the boring parameters deviating past a threshold.