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US 6,786,087 B2Granted
Controlled thruster driven profiler for coastal waters
AssigneeCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research
InventorsElgar Stephen Desa, Prakash Mehra, Gajanan Purushottam Naik, Bailon Antonio Ehrlich Desa, Rajachandran Madhan, Antonio Manuel Dos Santos Pascoal
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a device useful as a controllable variable speed thruster-driven oceanographic profiler for coastal waters for measuring the vertical structure of chosen properties of the oceanic water column.
Claims27
A controlled thruster driven profiler for profiling the properties of the ocean water, said profiler comprising:
- a thruster motor mounted externally at an end of a cylindrical casing terminated by a parabolic nose at the other end, said cylindrical casing housing a power supply and an electronic circuit and said cylindrical casing being fitted with a pair of fixed fins at the end nearer to the thruster motor;
- one or more sensors mounted externally on the cylindrical casing for sensing one or more oceanographic parameters, wherein the sensors are at least one member selected from the group consisting of speed sensor, conductivity sensor, temperature sensor, water depth sensor, sea switch and pressure sensor;
- and
- an electronic circuit connected to said sensors for receiving, storing, or processing data received from said sensors and controlling the thruster motor.
1 more element
A controlled thruster-driven profiler for coastal waters of comprising:
- a thruster motor mounted externally on one end-cap of a meter long cylindrical casing which terminates at the other end in a parabolic nosecone so as to reduce drag forces on the device when in motion;
- the profiler is made to be weakly positively buoyant and is fitted with sensors of speed, conductivity, temperature and depth and a pair of fixed fins at the thruster end so as to stabilize it against rotational effects during its motion in the water column;
- a power source for the profiler comprises of a stack of batteries along the axis of the casing providing thrust to the motor, and power to drive the electronics of a control and the sensors;
- the control system for the profiler comprising a linearized plant and a proportional-plus-integral (PI) controller that automatically determines the thrust to the motor so as to trim the system to a user specified speed and by the use of gain scheduling techniques and the provision of a speed sensor to halt the profiler at any programmed depth, and thereafter to ascend to the sea surface by reversing the direction and magnitude of the thrust to a user specified speed.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.