Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467

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Measurement
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/measurement

Processing a measured vibroacoustic signal for rock type recognition in

rotary drilling technology
Patrik Flegner ⇑, Ján Kačur, Milan Durdán, Marek Laciak
Institute of Control and Informatization of Production Processes, Faculty BERG, Technical University of Košice, B. Němcovej 3, 042 00 Košice, Slovak Republic

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Rotary drilling technology with diamond bits places high demands on expertise and experience. It plays
Received 27 June 2018 an important role in the search, preparation, and extraction of raw materials in geological and engineer-
Received in revised form 26 September ing research. A large amount of hard-to-disintegrate raw materials are currently disintegrated directly by
2018
drilling diamond bits. The technology of the disintegration of rocks by rotary drilling represents a signif-
Accepted 28 October 2018
Available online 30 October 2018
icant point and it is a central focus in the field of research in order to optimize the process. Optimization
of the process currently considers both the energy and economic aspects, the efficiency of the drilling
process, plus the protection of the working environment and the environment. In the case of rotary dril-
Keywords:
Rotary drilling
ling technology, an interaction between the disintegrating tool and disintegrated rock or rock massif
Pressure force occurs. The interaction of the tool with the rock is a rudimentary source of vibration and noise. The gen-
Revolutions speed erated vibroacoustic signal is an integrating information source. Information about the current state of
Vibroacoustic signal the drilling process and the drilling device is obtained indirectly by processing this signal. The basic
Vector quantization aim is to use the vibroacoustic signal to identify the type of drilling rock, i.e. its classification to the rel-
Calculation of symptom evant category from a geomechanical point of view in relation to the optimal drilling mode. This paper
deals with the use of a vibroacoustic signal in order to identify the rock in terms of the efficiency of
the set mode (i.e., pressure force, revolutions and drilling bit) under current geotechnical conditions.
The paper also points to the possibility of recognizing and classifying rock in the drilling process by
use of a vector quantization method utilising the vibroacoustic signal.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The disintegration of the rocks via rotary drilling belongs to key
processes not only in mining but also in wider geotechnology
fields. Solving the problems of rocks disintegration technique con-
cerns a wide range of geotechnologies. Therefore, in the process of
rotary drilling of rock there are common features as in all branches
of mining. An important feature is that rock disintegration takes
place on the face of the drilling tool. A second feature is the
removal of the drilled rock, and the third is to ensure the creation
of a mining works or borehole. The development of rotary drilling
technology has increased rapidly. The emergence of new, princi-
pally progressive technologies has meant an increased quality of
drilling and drilling speed. In line with the overall development
of new rotary drilling technologies, there has occurred the devel-
opment of new types of drilling kits and their various modifica-
tions, which are have been differentiated according to the drilling
technique. Techniques of rocks disintegrating in rotary drilling:
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: patrik.flegner@tuke.sk (P. Flegner).

rotary drilling – the disintegration tool rotates around its axis in
the rock, drilling on the core,

impact drilling, the impact drilling respectively – the disinte-
grating machine with the high-frequency strokes into the rock

rotary-impact drilling – the disintegrating tool rotates and
strokes into the rock,

non-traditional methods of drilling (e.g., flame, ultrasonic, laser,
etc.)

combined drilling methods (i.e., using two different ways of dis-
integrating rocks).
The above-mentioned rotation disintegration techniques are
based on the method of interaction of the tool with the rock. Each
of these technologies has its own rules and uses another mecha-
nism of rock disintegration. In the drilling technique the emphasis
is placed on specific types of tools, drilling modes and geomechan-
ical properties of rocks. Current drilling technology limits the use
of time in the drilling process itself, because auxiliary operations
take an extended amount of time. These are often strenuous and
dangerous operations with drilling equipment.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2018.10.090
0263-2241/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
452 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467
Nomenclature
Nomenclature
R real numbers
f ðxÞ vector function
i imaginary unit
p symptom vector
x vector signal structure
r2x variance
E energy of the signal
mxFT1 moment of the signal in frequency space
mxFT2 moment of the signal in the frequency domain
fj complex function
fs sampling frequency, (Hz)
N number of realizations
n length of the samples
Drilling with diamond tools, usually with the bits, is currently
the most advanced deep drilling technology in use. It is sophisti-
cated in various technical-geological conditions and is constantly
evolving. In our basic research, we pay attention explicitly to the
rotary disintegration of the rocks, whose outlet is the drilling core.
The theoretical study of rock disintegration of rocks by rotary
drilling and subsequent experiments on the drilling studied in
Institute of Geotechnics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences showed
that there is an optimal – effective drilling mode in terms of the
specific energy consumption w (Jm3), in terms of wear of the dis-
integration of the tool as well as the speed of drilling v (ms1) as
described in [1–4].
With the disintegration of rock, there are basically three criteria
of the optimality. The criterion of maximum drilling speed is used
only in rare emergency situations, when not looking at the con-
sumption of tools. Maximum revolutions and pressure forces are
applied. The second criterion is to ensure the maximum life of
the tooling, i.e., the minimum tool wear intensity. This criterion
is directly related to the amount of the specific energy of disinte-
gration, where the wear intensity is directly proportional to the
energy produced during disintegration. The third most important
criterion for practice is the minimum cost criterion for a standard
borehole meter. Previous basic research results showed that the
critical measurable variable is the fraction of the instantaneous
drilling speed and the specific energy of disintegration. This result
has been verified in practice as well as in research drilling. Apply-
ing these three different criteria is in different modes. Basically, a
new result, emanating from the analysis of vibroacoustic measure-
ments is that the dispersion of the accompanying vibroacoustic
signal is one of the main characteristics for the classification of
rock. The issue of processing vibroacoustic measurements for the
identification of the rock disintegration process is very complex
and researchers are only an early stage of understanding. The inter-
pretation of the relationship between the vibroacoustic signals
measured in the disintegration process and disintegration process
itself (i.e., the characteristics of the drilling mode, the tool proper-
ties, and the rock properties) is a very perspective area of basic
research with an applied impact [5–7]. Presently, basic research
has confirmed the perspective of using vibroacoustic signals to
identify and classify the rock disintegration process.
Three mentioned optimal criterions of optimal mode are ful-
filled in approximately one (effective) working mode (i.e., opti-
mum speed revolution nopt and optimal pressure force Fopt ) [8–10].
Other research has shown that close to the efficient regime of
the drilling process, the accompanying vibroacoustic signal has
specific identifiable properties that have been summarized in
[11–13].
pnorm
jk normalized j-th symptom
pj symptom
Ts sampling period, (s)
V m ðRÞ m-dimensional linear vector space
w the specific energy consumption, (Jm3))
xi sequence of signal samples
xk angular frequency
qe Euclidean metric
L2 x calculated the 2-norm of the signal
L2 FT calculated the 2-norm of the spectrum
L2 norm calculated the 2-norm of the vector
p1 ; p2 ; . . . ; pn calculated symptoms
pjk unnormalized j-th symptom
jXðixk Þj amplitude of frequency spectrum of signal
The specific identifiable properties of the vibroacoustic signal
result from signal processing in time and frequency domains. In
the time domain, we usually work with the time behaviour of
the signal. Signal properties have been described by characteristics
that are derived from integral variables such as the mean value of
the signal, energy, and signal norm. If we consider the signal to be
random, then we can describe it by using statistical characteristics
such as variance, standard deviation, spikiness and skewness of its
amplitude distribution.
In the frequency domain, the properties were based on the use
of a discrete Fourier transform. From the spectrum of signals, only
certain frequency components have been selected as s bearing the
required significant information about the dominant frequencies.
For these reasons, there has been an effort for several years for sci-
entific research to explore the possibility of using a vibroacoustic
signal, while effectively controlling the process of rotary drilling
of the rock massif. The authors of this paper presently consider
the idea of efficient control of the rock drilling process, based on
the following principle:
The system continuously measures the accompanying vibroa-
coustic signal from the rock massif drilling and ex-tracts the vector
of measures, based on which it then recognizes and classifies the
disintegrated rock into one of the predefined geomechanical
classes by the method of vector quantization. Subsequently, it sets
the drilling mode that was determined expertly offline for a given
Fig. 1. Experimental equipment: 1-hose for supplying of drilling fluid, 2-sealing
head of drilling fluid supply, 3-cover drive of spindle,4-sheet metal cover of working
tool, 5-Core barrel with drilling tool, 6-specimen of rock,7-clamping mechanism, 8-
sedimentation tank, 9-stand.
 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467
class as an efficient drilling mode. The vector quantization method
has been modified to be used for a vibroacoustic signal from the
process of rotary drilling of rock mass.
The vector quantization method belongs to the category of
artificial intelligence methods. It is extensively used in the field
Fig. 2. The position disintegration of rocks: 1 – drilling bit, 2 rock specimen,
3 – clamping mechanism.
Fig. 3. Measured vibroacoustic signal a) andesite, b) limestone, c) granite, d) concrete.
453
of digital signal processing and image processing. The signal is
analysed for the purpose of recognition and classification into
classes [14–16].
Vector quantization is the process where the vector x will
assign a symptom vector p that most closely approximates to the
vector x, assuming that x 2 V m ðRÞ. Subsequently, in the vector
space V m ðRÞ, a finite set of vectors is defined which represents
so-called classes [17–19].
This approach to solving the task of control of the drilling pro-
cess of rocks allows for avoidance of the conventional control
model, which would be unrealistic due to the complexity and
stochasticity of the drilling process itself in the rock massif.
Authors in [20–23] have described in more detail the control
system of the drilling process and using the appropriate mathe-
matical formalism and described the principle of the rock classifier
based on vector quantization. They also illustrated the first
research results in looking for dependencies between the proper-
ties of vibroacoustic emissions, the type of disintegrated rock and
the drilling mode itself.
In this paper, the authors present some new findings from their
own research on signal-rock-disconnection mode relations, the
aim of which is to compile a vector of characteristics that would
mutually sufficiently differentiate individual classes of rock. On
this vector characteristics there would be an online classification
of rock disintegration performed with the above-mentioned
principle of control of the drilling process [24–27].
454 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467
2. Experiment methodology
The experimental equipment is a unique horizontal drilling
stand with a core drill bit. Its purpose is to simulate the real pro-
cess of rotary disintegration of rock. The drill stand was developed
and constructed by the Institute of Geotechnics of Slovak Academy
of Science (IGT SAS) in Košice [28–32].
Research is directed towards several basic areas: the field of
research of drilling tools and its wear-out, the field of research of
effect of different factors on energy intensity of the process, the
field of research of process optimization in term of costs of drilling,
and the field of research of process identification and rock classifi-
cation. Several innovations have been made upon the drill stand
during research. These were innovations in process control and
measurement of operating and accompanying variables. The rotary
drilling process control is fully automated by the TWIDO control
system. The process control system is exclusively focused on the
control of process variables such as the pressure force F (N) and
revolutions n (rpm). The optimal setting of process variables into
an operating mode according to the type of drilled rocks results
in an efficient rotary disintegration. The measurement part of the
process is provided by the ADASH 3900-II measuring system. The
measurement system of the process is directed towards measuring
process variables like pressure force and revolutions, but also the
accompanying variables such as vibrations, noise, torque Mk , and
the length of the borehole [33–36].
Fig. 4. Frequency spectrum a) andesite, b) limestone, c) granite, d) concrete.
During experimental drilling, emphasis is placed on measuring
the following variables of the rotary disintegration process:

the speed of revolutions n (rpm), selected in a range from 0 to
2000 rpm,

pressure force F (N), selected in the range of 0 to 16000 N, mea-
sured by a pressure unit on a hydraulic cylinder,

borehole length measured by magnet-o-strictive linear sensor
Baluff BTL7 Micropulse Transduce mounted on a hydraulic
cylinder with an accuracy of 10 lm,

vibration sensors of oscillations of the drilling equipment move-
ment installed on the rock sample fastener, for the specimen of
the rock, Wilcoxon 784A-3 and CTC AC102-1A accelerometers,

torque when rock drilling, measured by 4-component Kistler
9272 dynamometer with Kistler 5070 multi-channel charging
amplifier.
The automated operating mode allows the operator to control
the entire drilling process. The setting of the operating mode is car-
ried out by the parameters of speed revolutions and the pressure
force by the respective software [37].
The horizontal drilling equipment consists of a support stand on
which a spindle head with a drill spindle is mounted. A drilling bit
as a working tool is screwed into spindle drill. The drill spindle is
driven by a DC motor (12.5 kW, 220 V) with an external excitation
(180 V) via V-belts. A thyristor rectifier is the source of direct
 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467 455

current for driving the electric motor. The flushing fluid is fed from Experimental drilling was carried out for each selected rock
the pump through a rubber pressure hose into the drill spindle. The type e.g., andesite, granite, limestone, and concrete – as an artificial
rock sample is clamped into mechanical equipment that is rock, and with set drilling parameters F = 10,000 N and n = 1000
mechanically coupled to the strain gauge sensing head of the axial rpm. The vibroacoustic signals measured are shown in the figure
pressure force and torque. The parts of the equipment from the (see Fig. 3).
spindle through the core barrel to the clamping equipment are
located in the protective sheet metal housing. The ten-so-metric
head is connected via a hinge to the piston of the hydraulic cylin-
ders. The handle of the slide ram is firmly attached to the stand.
The flushing water is drained through a high-pressure hose (see
Fig. 1). At present, the drilling stand allows operation within the
following parameters:

pressure force, F (0–16,000) N,

revolutions, n (0–2000) rpm,

torque, Mk (0–196) Nm,

drilled length, l (0–0.3) m,

water flush, Q (0–1)  103 m3s1,

speed of drilling, v (0–16.8)  103 ms1.

The horizontal drill stand is designed for the rotary drilling of

rock with small diameter diamond drilling bits up to a diameter
of 80 mm. The equipment allows the drilling of rock specimens
of the shape of the block of dimensions a  b  c approximately
to size 300  200  200 mm (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 6. Drilling cores of rock.

Fig. 5. Power frequency spectrum a) andesite, b) limestone, c) granite, d) concrete.

456 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467

The vibroacoustic signal was measured at a sampling frequency 3. Theoretical background

f s = 18 kHz and sampling period T s = 0.55 s, which created
frequency range (0–9) kHz (see Fig. 4).
The highlighted frequencies and frequency bands in the spec-
trum are characterized by the presence of dominant frequencies
when the rock disintegrates. Common dominant frequencies evi-
dent show themselves to be the frequencies of the drilling machine
and its moving parts, which generate a vibroacoustic signal. Differ-
ent frequencies can be presented as measures for disintegrating
rock. A spectrum of frequencies is included into calculations of
measures in a frequency domain (see Fig. 5).
The result of rotary disintegration with diamond bits is drilling
cores of rocks (see Fig. 6).
The starting point for searching for characteristics of the drilling
process is the accompanying vibroacoustic signal [38–41]. In view
of the current experience in this field, it can be stated that if the
conditions of the drilling process are not changed (i.e., the mode
and geomechanical properties of the disintegrated rock), the signal
is stationary. In practice, this means that the basic unit of the infor-
mation signal in terms of its processing is its only realization (i.e.,
sequence) about the length of the n samples. This realization of the
information signal we referred to as the sequence of the samples
fxi gni¼1 . The realization of signals about the length of the samples
n = 1024 has been processed in [42–46]. There has been an effort

Fig. 7. The procedure of calculating the value of symptom p3 with the L2 norm from the amplitude spectrum of the signal realization.

Fig. 8. Values of symptom p1 – variance, calculated from N = 30 realizations of all rocks.

 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467 457

to investigate single-digit symptoms of the character of the drilling
process, which with enough sensitively differentiate this process in
term of the regime, but mainly from the point of view of the type of
disintegrated rock as described in [47–51]. There were considered
the symptoms that can be calculated from one realization or from
the sequence of several successive realizations of the information
signal [52–54].
The process of extracting the j-th one-digit symptom pj 2 R
from the realization of the signal for which samples are valid
xi 2 X for i = 1,2,  ,n can be understood as n-dimensional real or
complex function:
pj ¼ f j ðx1 ; x2 ; . . . ; xn Þ
Several symptoms are typically needed to describe the status of
the process. Then m of one-digit symptoms pj ð j ¼ 1; 2;    ; mÞ
represent m-component symptom vector p ¼ ðp1 ; p2 ;    ; pn Þ that
characterizes the state of the process. The Eq. (1) that describes
the extraction of symptoms from the information signal has the
ability to be expressed via the vector function (2):
p ¼ f ðxÞ ð2Þ
where the realization of the signal fxi gni¼1 was arranged to the vector
structure x ¼ ðx1 ; x2 ;    ; xn Þ.
Using mathematical abstraction, it is then possible to imagine
that the process as a system moves in a m-dimensional linear vec-
tor space V m ðRÞ. It was assumed that pj 2 R for every
j ¼ 1; 2;    ; m. This is the infinite and continuous m-dimensional
vector space for which is valid V m ðRÞ ¼ Rm .
ð1Þ
In real conditions, where the information signal is scanned by
the sensor and digitized by an AD converter with limited resolu-
tion, this vector space of symptoms is finite. The individual symp-
toms as components of the symptom vector acquire values from
the finite sets of values.

Fig. 9. Values of symptom p2 – L2 x of N = 30 realizations of all rocks.

Fig. 10. Values of symptom p3 – L2 xFT of N = 30 realizations of all rocks.

458 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467

Obviously, in general, and this also applies in this case, individ- V m ðRÞ to determine the distance between the pairs of symptom
ual measures have different physical dimensions and different vectors px ; py 2 V m ðRÞ. For the function q, arithmetic operations
ranges of values. Some measures can get very large values, others that are defined in a linear vector space, namely the product of a
very small. In order to avoid distortion of results due to different vector with the scalar, the scalar product of two vectors, and the
scales of measurement parameters when analysing these multidi- equality of two vectors must suffice. We have used classical Eucli-
mensional data, these data should be normalized using data dean metric in this work for which is it valid:
derived statistics. The following Eq. (3) serves this purpose.
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

N u m
pjk  min pjk k¼1   uX  2
pnorm ¼
N
N ð3Þ qe px ; py ¼ t pxj  pyj ð4Þ
jk
max pjk k¼1  min pjk k¼1 j¼1

where pjk is unnormalized j-th symptom, calculated from k-th real-
ization of the signal, N is the number of evaluated realizations of the
signal, pnorm
jk is normalized j-th symptom calculated from k-th real-
ization of the signal.
In order to accurately distinguish individual states of the rock
drilling process based on symptom values, it was necessary to
 
introduce a suitable metric q px ; py for the symptom space
By this, we get the metric symptom space ðV m ðRÞ; qe Þ of the drilling
process, which will be further understood as the symptom space for
the process of disintegration of rock by rotary drilling. A vibroacous-
tic emission signal was used as the information signal from which
the individual single-digit symptoms of the drilling process condi-
tion were extracted. Certain experiments were also carried out on
vibration signals in three axes.

Fig. 11. Values of the symptom p4 – Energy of the signal from N = 30 realizations of all rocks.

Fig. 12. Values of symptom p5 – Moment of the signal from N = 30 realizations of all rocks in the frequency domain.
 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467 459

Each of these symptoms were always calculated from one real-

ization fxi gni¼1 of the signal about the length of realization n = 1024
samples. Signal samples were read with sampling frequency
f s =44.1 kHz. In this case, the calculation was repeated for N = 30
successive realizations of the signal. Subsequently, the calculated
values of symptoms were individually normalized for each rock
according to the Eq. (3). In this way, accompanying vibroacoustic
signals from the drilling of andesite, limestone, granite and con-
crete were analysed and compared with each other. The following
are the computational equations for each symptom.

Symptom p1 – the variance of the signal realization

Variance is the most commonly used degree of variability. It is
defined as the average of the second powers of the deviations
of the individual values of the statistical set from the arithmetic
mean:
Fig. 14. Visualization of values of the symptom p4 Energy of the signal of all rocks.
1X n
p1  r2x ¼ ð xi  xÞ 2 ð5Þ
n i¼1

Symptom p2 – L2 norm from the time behaviour of the signal

(L2 x)
The proposal of the second analysed symptom p2 , is based on
the idea of the vector, the components of which are the individ-
ual samples of the signal realization fxi gni¼1 . For an arithmetic
vector, the so-called norm Lp of the vector x is defined:
!1p
X
n
p
Lp ðxÞ ¼ j xi j ¼ ðx; x; . . . ; xÞ1=p ; p 2 ð0; 1Þ ð6Þ
i¼1
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
ptimes

Specifically, as the symptom p2 the norm L2 of the vector

xðp ¼ 2Þ was defined, components which were samples of the
signal realization:
!12
X
n
1
p2 ¼ L2 x ¼ jxj ¼ x2i ¼ ðx; xÞ2 ð7Þ
i¼1 Fig. 15. Visualization of values of the symptom p6 – Moment of the signal of all
rocks in the frequency domain.

Symptom p3 – L2 norm from the spectrum of the signal (L2 FT)
In this case, we calculate L2 norm from the amplitude
frequency spectrum of one signal realization. So the k ¼ 0; 1; 2; . . . ; n  1 is the amplitude of frequency spectrum of
symptom p3 is calculated as L2 norm from the vector the signal realization which responds to angular frequency
x ¼ ðjXðix0 Þj; jXðix1 Þj; . . . ; jXðixn1 ÞjÞ, where jXðix0 Þj for xk ¼ 2pkfs =n (rad.s1). The frequency spectrum was calculated

Fig. 13. Values of symptom p6 – Moment of the signal from N = 30 realizations of all rocks in the frequency domain.
460 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467

from the realization of the signal. The sampling frequency of X

n
p4  E ¼ x2i ð9Þ
accompanying vibroacoustic signal was f s ¼ 44:1 kHz. The cal-
i¼1
culation of the symptom p3 is performed according to the fol-
lowing equation:
Symptom p5 – moment of the signal in frequency space
The fifth symptom i.e. moment from the signal spectrum is a
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u n1 numerical characteristic that is calculated from the amplitude
uX
p3  L2 xFT ¼ t jX ðixk Þj spectrum of the vibroacoustic signal from the drilling of the
2
ð8Þ
k¼0 rock. The moment symptom represents the center of the spec-
trum, virtual center of the spectrum, respectively. When looking
For illustration, the procedure for calculating the value of the symp- for symptoms of the drilling process, the moment appears as a
tom p3 from one realization of the signal is shown in Fig. 7. significant numerical characteristic. Moment mxFT1 represents

Symptom p4 – the energy of the signal the sum of the products of all possible spectrum values with the
The fourth symptom p4 is the energy of the accompanying frequencies of these spectra.
vibroacoustic signal. The energy of the signal is given by the PN
i¼1 f i jX ðif Þj
sum of quadrates of signal samples fxi gni¼1 : p5  mxFT1 ¼ PN ð10Þ
i¼0 f i

Fig. 16. Values of symptoms p1 – p6 for andesite.

Fig. 17. Values of symptoms p1 – p6 for limestone.

 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467 461

Fig. 18. Values of symptom p1 – p6 for granite.

Fig. 19. Values of symptom p1 – p6 for concrete.

PN PN
where f i ¼ iDf and Df ¼ f s =N. r2xi L2 xi

Symptom p6 – moment of the signal in the frequency domain x1T ¼ i¼1
; x2T ¼ i¼1 ;
N N
The most recently examined symptom is based on the signal PN PN
i¼1 L2 FTi Ei ð12Þ
moment in the frequency domain, but it is partially modified. x3T ¼ ; x4T ¼ i¼1 ;
N N
The modification of the moment calculation in the frequency PN PN
i¼1 mxFT1i mxFT2i
domain consists in the substitution of the sum of all frequencies x5T ¼ ; x6T ¼ i¼1 :
PN PN N N
i¼1 f i for the sum of the amplitude spectrum i¼1 jX ð if Þj.

PN
f i jX ðif Þj 4. Results and discussion
p6  mxFT2 ¼ Pi¼0
N
ð11Þ
i¼0 jX ðif Þj
One of the main tasks of the experimental research is the deter-
where f i ¼ iDf and Df ¼ f s =N. mination of the symptom vector p of the process of disintegration
For the calculation of centroid, the equations from (12) were used. of rock by rotary drilling. Experiments have so far focused on six
462 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467

Fig. 20. Two-dimensional analysis of all rocks in a two-dimensional symptom space (p1 ; p4 ).

Fig. 21. Two-dimensional analysis of all rocks in a two-dimensional symptom space (p2 ; p3 ).

Fig. 22. Two-dimensional analysis of all rocks in a two-dimensional symptom space (p4 ; p5 ).
 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467 463

Fig. 23. Two-dimensional analysis of all rocks in a two-dimensional symptom space (p2 ; p3 ).

Fig. 24. Two-dimensional analysis of all rocks in a two-dimensional symptom space (p5 ; p6 ).

Fig. 25. Possible classes of rocks according to the centroid of the clusters of symptom vectors, calculated from the individual vibroacoustic signal realization of the analysed
rocks.
464 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467

specific symptoms as possible components of the vector symptom
of the drilling process. An analysis of the values of these symptoms
was carried out, depending on the rock and its drilling mode on the
experimental drilling stand. At the same time, it was necessary to
analyse the differentiation of the symptoms in relation to the rock
using the metric.
As the symptoms of the state of the drilling process, the param-
eters of accompanying vibroacoustic emissions as an information
signal were determined on the basis of the works [55,56] and
own experiments: p1 – the rate of variability (i.e., variance of the
time course of signal), p2 – the L2 x norm of time course of the sig-
nal, p3 – the L2 FT norm of signal spectrum, p4 – signal energy, p5
and p6 – moments of signal spectrum.
All symptoms calculated from N = 30 events of vibroacoustic
signal from the disintegration of all analysed rocks.
It can be inferred from the Fig. 8 that the lowest variance has
granite rock and the highest in andesite.
From the plotting of symptom p1 , it is possible to assess the dif-
ferentiability of the variance of the time course of the signal as the
symptom. The greatest differences are between andesite and lime-
stone, granite respectively.
We can see in the Fig. 9 that the lowest value of L2 norm is once
again the rock granite and the highest that of andesite. Andesite
and concrete have values of this magnitude a very high fluctuating
magnitude, but they are sufficiently differentiated from other rocks.
Fig. 10 shows that the lowest value of L2 xFT has granite and the
highest value has the rock andesite.
The lowest value of energy is again granite and the highest
rocks of andesite and concrete as shown in Fig. 11. Obtained results
are similarly as in the previous case.

Fig. 26. Centroids of symptoms of rocks in a two-dimensional symptom vector.

Fig. 27. Positions (i.e. clusters) of symptom vectors of the drilling process of four rocks in three-dimensional symptom space (p4 ; p1 ; p2 ).
 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467 465

In the next part of the research, the mutual independence of the
six symptoms of the drilling process was verified. Two-
dimensional symptom analysis has unexpectedly demonstrated a
strong correlation between the individual symptoms p1  r2x ; p2
 L2 x and symptom p4  E. The reason for this strong dependence
is the fact that all the calculation equations i.e., (5), (7) and (9) have
a consistent calculation basis. This is proven at the same time the
course of each symptom.
The lowest and highest values of the moment for all rocks can
be seen from the behaviours shown in Fig. 12. Andesite and
concrete rock are more differentiated from limestone and granite.
It points to a strong symptom of drilled rocks.
Behaviours of the moment p6 for all rocks, we can see again in
Fig. 13. Differentiability of drilled rocks through symptoms can also
be illustrated by the following figures (see Figs. 14 and 15). A visu-
alization is performed by radar charts that show the differences in
detail. The presented images in this paper are important results
and outputs of the visualization from the research which search
for measures of drilled rocks for the purpose of identifying and
classifying rocks into classes in the process of control.

Fig. 28. Clusters of symptom vectors of the drilling process in three-dimensional symptom space (p4 ; p1 ; p6 ).

Fig. 29. Clusters of symptom vectors of the drilling process in a three-dimensional symptom space (p3 ; p5 ; p6 ).
466 P. Flegner et al. / Measurement 134 (2019) 451–467
An important result as an indicator is also the view of values of
the symptoms for one drilled rock. Their display is important in
terms of significance; efficiency, classification, and differentiability
of the searched symptoms (see Figs. 16–19).
The positions of the symptom vectors in the symptom plane
(p1  r2x ; p4  E), calculated from N = 30 realizations of the vibroa-
coustic signal of all six rock types are shown in Fig. 20. We can see
that the individual rocks have a defined part of the symptom space,
but the boundary between them is not distinct. The image also
shows a degree of dependence or a strong correlation between
the symptom p1  r2x and p4  E we can also consider this as a pro-
duct of the research work. In this respect, the fact that the time
course of the signal and its spectrum are equivalent and mutually
transformable characteristics of the same process is, which are
likely to play a role. Although, it must be stated, their numerical
form in the structure of the vector from which they are calculated
is different. Similar results and partial conclusions also apply to the
Fig. 21.
Different research results in the two-dimensional analysis
occurred when symptoms p3 ; p5 and p6 were included in the symp-
tom space. The following figures (see Fig. 22–24) show that there is
no correlation between the symptoms in the two-dimensional
Fig. 30. Centroids of symptoms of the rocks in a three-dimensional symptom vector
(p4 ; p1 ; p2 ).
Fig. 31. Centroids of symptoms of the rocks in a three-dimensional symptom vector
(p3 ; p5 ; p6 ).
symptom vector and we can consider non-linear classification,
multimodal classification respectively.
In order to better assess the differentiability of the rock using a
defined symptom vector, the centroids of clusters of realizations
for each rock and symptom were also calculated. The centroids
are shown in figures. They represent an important center in the
cluster. Centroids were also shown in the previous figures (see
Figs. 20–24).
The results are shown in Figs. 25 and 26. It can be seen from the
figures that the differentiability is sufficient, especially if four
classes of rocks are to be defined. However, the boundaries
between the classes of the rocks are definitely fuzzy.
In the next part of the article, the clusters of the symptom vec-
tors of the analysed rocks drilling process in the three-dimensional
space (i.e., energy E, dispersion r2x and L2 x) are shown in Fig. 27.
There is a sufficient differentiation of rocks, but also considerable
interdependence that needs to be taken under consideration in fur-
ther research.
The clusters of symptom vectors from the drilling process,
which have a nonlinear dependency of individual symptoms, are
shown in Figs. 28 and 29. They show that they are important symp-
toms for classification of rocks into classes.
The Figs. 30 and 31 represents only the view of centroids in a
three-dimensional symptom space.
5. Conclusion
This paper further builds on research work in the field of mining
and geological activity and discusses the issue of identifying the
symptoms of the disintegration process of the rock massif by
rotary drilling. The ultimate goal of the research is the drilling pro-
cess control algorithm so that the rock drilling mode is effective
and efficient in terms of specific energy consumption. The basis
of the research is the accompanying vibroacoustic signal analysis.
The results of the experiments on the four rocks indicate sufficient
differentiability of the proposed symptoms in relation to the
appropriately chosen classes of rocks in terms of geomechanics.
Increased attention should be paid to the mutual independence
of each proposed symptom. The most promising results were
demonstrated in the drilling process symptoms defined as the
energy of the signal sample vector, the L2 FT vector norm of the
Fourier coefficients of amplitude-frequency spectrum of the signal
and the mxFT1 moment of the signal of the frequency spectrum.
Further research is currently geared towards finding other symp-
toms so that the size of the symptom space of the drilling process
of the rocks is sufficient. Consequently, this would allow the cre-
ation of a sufficient number of rock classes in the learning process
in terms of a correspondingly efficient drilling mode. The future for
the study of measures may be suggested to lie in cepstral filters
and wavelet transformation.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Slovak Grant Agency for
Science under grant VEGA 1/0273/17, and by the Slovak Research
and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-14–0892.
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