Digital air gun
AssigneeReal Time Systems, Inc.
InventorsWilliam Allen Nance, Daniel Eugene Hobson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A marine air gun generates an acoustic signal in water, for example, during a marine seismic survey. The marine air gun includes digital electronic circuitry. The digital electronic circuitry may control an actuator of the marine air gun, digitize and store data from sensors located on or near the marine air gun, send and/or receive digital communications, store and/or output electrical energy, and/or perform other functions. A marine seismic source system that includes multiple air gun clusters may have a separate digital communication link between a command center and each air gun cluster. Each communication link may provide power and digital communication between the command center and one of the air gun clusters.
Claims55
A marine air gun comprising:
- a pressure release assembly that releases compressed air into water to generate an acoustic signal;
- an actuator that moves to actuate the pressure release assembly in response to an electrical signal applied to the actuator, the actuator carried by the pressure release assembly;
- and
- a digital electronic controller that controls the electrical signal applied to the actuator, the digital electronic controller carried by the pressure release assembly.
A marine seismic system comprising:
- a sensor that detects conditions in or about a marine air gun submersed in water;
- the marine air gun comprising:
- a pressure release assembly that generates an acoustic signal;
- a digitizer that converts analog data from the sensor to digital data, the digitizer carried by the pressure release assembly and communicably coupled to the sensor;
- and
- a memory that stores the digital data, the memory carried by the pressure release assembly and communicably coupled to the digitizer.
A marine seismic system comprising:
- an array of marine air guns, each marine air gun including:
- a pressure release assembly that generates an acoustic signal in water;
- an actuator that moves to actuate the pressure release assembly in response to an electrical signal applied to the actuator;
- and
- a digital electronic controller that controls the electrical signal applied to the actuator, the digital electronic controller and the actuator carried by the pressure release assembly;
- and
- a central control subsystem communicably coupled to each digital electronic controller to send power and communications to the marine air gun.
A marine seismic system comprising:
- a plurality of air gun clusters, each air gun cluster including one or more marine air guns that generate acoustic signals in water based on digital communications from a central control subsystem,
- the central control subsystem communicably coupled to the plurality of air gun clusters by a plurality of communication links, each of the communication links communicably coupled to one of the air gun clusters to transmit the digital communications from the central control subsystem to the air gun cluster.
A method of communicating digital data in a marine seismic system, the method comprising:
- sending an outgoing digital communication to a marine air gun by modulating voltage on a communication link that communicably couples the marine air gun to a central control subsystem;
- detecting an incoming digital communication from the marine air gun based on current modulations on the communication link;
- and
- storing the incoming digital communication in a memory of the central control subsystem.
A method of communicating digital data in a marine seismic system, the method comprising:
- sending an outgoing digital communication from a marine air gun by modulating current on a communication link that communicably couples the marine air gun to a central control subsystem;
- detecting an incoming digital communication from the central control subsystem based on voltage modulations on the communication link;
- and
- storing the incoming digital communication in a memory of the marine air gun.
A marine seismic system comprising:
- a communication link that transmits digital data between a central control subsystem and a marine air gun;
- the central control subsystem including a voltage modulator coupled to the communication link to transmit voltage-modulated signals to the marine air gun;
- and
- the marine air gun including a current modulator coupled to the communication link to transmit current-modulated signals to the central control subsystem.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.