Severe downhole vibrations can damage drilling equipment, including the drill bit, drill collars, stabilizers, measurement-while-drilling/logging-while-drilling (MWD/LWD) tools, and rotary steerable systems (RSSs). Advances in near-bit sensor technology are now allowing drillers to use vibration sensor information while drilling to optimize rotary-steerable operations. The introduction of a commercial RSS in the 1990s revolutionized directional drilling. Since then, RSS technology has become more reliable and is now a mature, standard application. Due to the inherent complexity of RSS technology, however, system reliability is still lower than that of MWD and LWD tools.
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