US 11,899,438 B1
Distributed control system with failover capabilities for physical well equipment
Daniel Joshua Stark, Houston, TX (US); Etienne Samson, McKinney, TX (US); Adan H. Herrera, Carrollton, TX (US); Allan Silva Freitas, Divinopolis (BR); Dale E. Jamison, Humble, TX (US); Adam Harold Martin, Addison, TX (US); and Alexander Simon Chretien, Houston, TX (US)
Assigned to Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
Filed by Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
Filed on Dec. 15, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/082,217.
Int. Cl. G05B 23/02 (2006.01); G01V 1/44 (2006.01)
CPC G05B 23/0262 (2013.01) [G01V 1/44 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
a first piece of well equipment configured to perform a first physical task during a well operation at a wellsite;
a second piece of well equipment configured to perform a second physical task during the well operation at the wellsite; and
a distributed control system that includes a first control unit coupled to the first piece of well equipment and a second control unit coupled to the second piece of well equipment, wherein the first control unit and the second control unit both include a first control module configured to automatically control the first physical task and a second control module configured to automatically control the second physical task, wherein the first control unit is configured to determine an action to perform at least in part by communicating with the second control unit, wherein the first control unit is configured to determine whether to perform the action by transmitting a request to the second control unit for an approval of the action, wherein the distributed control system is configured to detect a failure of the second control unit and automatically initiate a failover process in which the first control unit takes over control of the second physical task, the failover process involving enabling the second control module on the first control unit.