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Mode Physical (P) — Autonomy & Control

Automation requirements (per 2024 guidelines):

  • Mode switching: automate drilling/survey mode transitions (built‑in survey interval; on/off‑bottom; slide/rotation switching with appropriate string movement).
  • Steering: compute toolface direction, slide length, and other steering requirements autonomously. Human intervention to place/retrieve mechanisms (e.g., whipstock) is allowed, but orientation must be system‑computed and displayed.
  • Surveying: fully autonomous surveying and autonomous survey qualification; secondary human verification/override is allowed and must be flagged.
  • Monitoring: compute and display dogleg severity, and distance/direction to plan at each survey station on the rig display.
  • Control architecture: document measurement/aggregation latencies and controller update rates; design for robust closed‑loop control using downhole data.

Mandatory Rule

  • Surveying and survey qualification are autonomous; human verification/override MUST be flagged.
  • Control design SHALL support robust closed‑loop operation based on downhole data.

see the full 2024 text at 2024/group-b.md.