Communication buoy with ice penetrating capabilities
AssigneeScientific Solutions, Inc.
InventorsPeter J. Stein, Armen Bahlavouni, Douglas W. Andersen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A deployable buoy having a nose cone and a tail section interconnected by a housing. The buoy comprises an outer shell and a canister with the outer shell axially moveable relative to the canister. An expansion chamber is provided between the outer shell and canister to produce and increase the axial length of the buoy and thereby increase the buoyancy of the buoy from a low buoyancy to a greater buoyancy and to orient and maintain the buoy in a substantially vertical orientation. The buoy is provided with a hot fluid generation source to melt a layer of ice and a nose cone ejection system to expose an antenna for the transmission of data to the central processing system.
Claims14
A data transmitting buoy for use in transmitting data from ice covered bodies of water comprising:
- a water tight elongate housing having a forward end and a rear end;
- a transmitter within the housing;
- an exposable antenna connected to the transmitter to transmit data;
- a buoyancy and orientation adjusting system for adjusting the buoyancy and orientation of the buoy, when submerged in the water, upon contact with the ice, from a relatively low buoyancy to a relatively high buoyancy, in which high buoyancy condition the elongate housing is urged to a vertical orientation with the forward end uppermost;
- and
- an ice melting system to enable the buoy to burrow upwardly through the ice cover when in contact therewith in said vertical orientation.
A data transmitting buoy for use in transmitting data from ice covered bodies of water comprising:
- a water tight elongate housing having a forward end and a rear end;
- a transmitter within the housing;
- an exposable antenna connected to the transmitter to transmit data;
- a buoyancy and orientation adjusting system for adjusting the buoyancy and orientation of the buoy, when submerged in the water from a relatively low buoyancy to a relatively high buoyancy, in which high buoyancy condition the elongate housing is urged to a vertical orientation with the forward end uppermost;
- and
- an ice melting system to enable the buoy to burrow upwardly through the ice cover when in contact therewith in said vertical orientation,
- wherein the buoyancy and orientation system comprises:
- an axially expandable chamber forward of the center of gravity of the buoy;
- a container of pressurized gas releasable, when desired, to axially expand the chamber;
- and
- an equipment canister, within the housing, partially defining the chamber, having a weighted end at the rear end of the housing and being moveable axially relative to the housing to extend the buoy by expansion of the chamber;
- whereby expansion of the chamber increases the buoyancy to the relatively high buoyancy, moves the equipment canister rearwardly of the buoy, provides the increased buoyancy forward of the center of gravity and together with the axial rearward movement of the equipment canister provides a center of buoyancy forward of the center of gravity of the buoy to urge the buoy to said vertical orientation.
An elongate data transmission buoy comprising:
- an axially expandable housing;
- an ejectable melter section at one end of the housing;
- a weighted end section at an opposed end of the housing,
- an axially expandable chamber within the housing;
- a source of pressurized gas;
- a control system to release the pressurized gas from the source, when desired, into the chamber to axially expand the chamber and housing thereby to increase buoyancy of the buoy and through the operation of the weighted end section to orient the buoy vertically with the nose cone uppermost;
- a heat producing system controlled by the control system to melt an ice layer, when contacted by the nose cone when the buoy is oriented vertically, to allow the buoy to burrow upwardly through the ice layer;
- and
- a melter section ejector operable by the control system following said burrowing through the ice layer to eject the melter section to expose an antenna, located in said housing, for transmission of the data under the control of the control system.
A data transmitting buoy for use in transmitting data from ice covered bodies of water comprising:
- a water tight elongate housing having a forward end and a rear end;
- a transmitter within the housing;
- an exposable antenna connected to the transmitter to transmit data;
- a buoyancy and orientation adjusting system for adjusting the buoyancy and orientation of the buoy, when submerged in the water, only upon contact with the ice, from a relatively low buoyancy to a relatively high buoyancy, in which high buoyancy condition the elongate housing is urged to a vertical orientation with the forward end uppermost;
- and
- an ice melting system to enable the buoy to burrow upwardly through the ice cover when in contact therewith in said vertical orientation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.