Underwater power and data relay
AssigneeCoflexip
InventorsAndrew M. Watt, Allen F. Leatt, Calum MacKinnon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An underwater apparatus for performing subsurface operations adapted to be operated from a remote location above the surface of a body of water is disclosed. The apparatus includes a linelatch system that is made up of a tether management system connected to a flying latch vehicle by a tether. The tether management system controls the amount of free tether between itself and the flying latch vehicle. The flying latch vehicle interfaces with various underwater structures. Also disclosed are methods of transferring power and/or data between two or more underwater devices using the linelatch system of the invention.
Claims19
A submersible system for transferring power from a subsurface power supply module to a subsurface device, comprising:
- a tether management system having an umbilical connector configured for deploying said tether management system from a surface vessel to a seabed, a jumper cable extendible from said tether management system configured for receiving at least one of power and data from an external subsurface module;
- a submersible vehicle releasably docked to said tether management system, said submersible vehicle having a tether receiving at least one of data and power from said tether management system
- a transfer system for selectively transferring at least one of said data and power to said submersible vehicle from said external subsurface module and said umbilical connector.
A method for establishing a power and control connection from a subsurface power supply module to a subsurface device, comprising the steps of:
- deploying a tether management system to a subsea location;
- in response to a control command, extending a jumper cable from said tether management system to said subsurface power supply module for transferring at least one of data and power from said subsurface power supply module to said tether management system;
- and
- flying a power connector from said tether management system to said subsurface device to establish at least one of a power and data transfer circuit between said tether management system and said subsurface device.
A method of deploying a submersible system and connecting the submersible system to an subsurface module, said method comprising the steps of:
- deploying a submersible system to the bottom of a body of water, the submersible system including:
- a tether management system having a cable for receiving at least one of data, power, and material from the subsurface module,
- a submersible vehicle detachably connected to the tether management system, and
- a tether attaching the submersible vehicle to the tether management system;
- detaching the submersible vehicle from the tether management system;
- and, connecting the cable to the subsurface module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.