Abstract: A drilling rig apparatus includes first and second industrial handling robots, a catwalk, and a powered mousehole collectively configured for automated red zone tubular handling. One of the industrial handling robots is secured to the drilling rig floor while the other is mounted on a track that allows movement out of the way of manual tubular operations, optionally off the drilling rig floor. The catwalk lifts each tubular from a staging area into position for grasping by the track-mounted industrial handling robot, with an orientation closer to vertical than horizontal. The powered mousehole moves tubulars held therein up or down to facilitate assembly with additional tubulars by the industrial handling robots.

Abstract: A system that can include a standpipe on a rig that supplies mud from one or more mud pumps to a tubular string, a rig controller, and a valve in fluid communication with the standpipe and communicatively coupled to the rig controller, where the rig controller is configured to detect a first signature of conditions of the rig based on data sources received at the rig controller, and where the rig controller causes the valve to open or close or partially open to control pressure in the standpipe based on the first signature.

Abstract: A deadline anchor can include a base structure coupled to a rig floor, a wheel rotatably coupled to the base structure, a first sensor coupled to the deadline anchor at a first location, where the first sensor detects a first force, and a second sensor coupled to the deadline anchor at a second location, where the second sensor detects a second force. A method can include coupling a first sensor to a deadline anchor at a first location, coupling a second sensor to the deadline anchor at a second location, applying a tension force to the deadline anchor, where the tension force is proportional to an actual hook load, detecting a first force, via the first sensor, in response to applying the tension force, and detecting a second force, via the second sensor, in response to applying the tension force.

Abstract: A fingerboard can include first and second fingers with a channel therebetween, and a biasing element with a first plurality of lobes that extend into the channel and define first and second locations. First and second tubulars disposed in first and second locations, where movement of the first tubular from the first location engages the first biasing element and prevents movement of the second tubular from the second location while the first tubular is engaged with the first biasing element. A fingerboard can include first and second fingers with a channel therebetween, and a biasing element with a first plurality of lobes that extend into the channel. Axially adjacent lobes define a first location therebetween, and movement of a first tubular along the channel from the first location to an adjacent second location compresses a first lobe as the first tubular moves past the first lobe.

Abstract: A mud bucket system including a base structure and a bellows with a longitudinal internal cavity, the base structure attached to one end of the bellows and a retention ring attached to another end, where the vertical movement of the retention ring lengthens or shortens the longitudinal internal cavity, and a method of using the system that can include coupling a mud bucket to a rig floor, raising a retention ring of the mud bucket, thereby elongating a longitudinal internal cavity of the mud bucket such that a connection of a tubular string is positioned within the longitudinal internal cavity, and unthreading the connection while the connection is positioned within the longitudinal internal cavity, where a tubular is connected to the tubular string at the connection and unthreading the connection disconnects the tubular from the tubular string and expels a fluid from the tubular into the longitudinal internal cavity.

Abstract: A mud bucket system including a base structure and a bellows with a longitudinal internal cavity, the base structure attached to one end of the bellows and a retention ring attached to another end, where the vertical movement of the retention ring lengthens or shortens the longitudinal internal cavity, and a method of using the system that can include coupling a mud bucket to a rig floor, raising a retention ring of the mud bucket, thereby elongating a longitudinal internal cavity of the mud bucket such that a connection of a tubular string is positioned within the longitudinal internal cavity, and unthreading the connection while the connection is positioned within the longitudinal internal cavity, where a tubular is connected to the tubular string at the connection and unthreading the connection disconnects the tubular from the tubular string and expels a fluid from the tubular into the longitudinal internal cavity.