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US 8,711,009 B2Granted
Ice data collection system
AssigneeConocoPhillips Company
InventorsRolf Christer Broman, Dom P. Berta, Khalid A. Soofi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) collect and transmit information about ice floes with respect to their areal extent, vertical underwater profile, thickness, density, location, speed, direction and other properties to determine the possible trajectory of the ice floe. This information is used to alert drilling platforms in icy ocean conditions of pending ice floe dangers.
Claims27
A system for monitoring ice floe movement comprising:
- a) a drilling structure;
- b) one or more unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) containing ice floe survey equipment for conducting an ice floe survey;
- and
- c) a docking station for receiving data from said ice floe survey equipment,
- wherein said UUV comprises an electric motor, one or more batteries, one or more control processors, and one or more data storage devices
- wherein the ice floe survey provides up to 72 hours warning of incoming ice floes.
3 more elements
A process for monitoring ice floe movement comprising:
- a) programming one or more unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) to conduct an ice floe survey;
- b) launching said UUV from a UUV launch location,
- c) conducting an underwater ice floe survey whereby the UUV is sent to ice floes of interest;
- d) retrieving the ice floe survey from said UUV after it conducts an underwater ice survey, and
- e) transmitting the ice flow survey whereby the UUV attempts to surfaces within or near the ice floe of interest;
- f) analyzing the ice floe survey for ice floes of interest,
- wherein said UUV comprises an electric motor, one or more batteries, one or more control processors, one or more data storage devices, and one or more pieces of ice floe survey equipment
- wherein the ice floe survey provides up to 72 hours warning of incoming ice floes.
5 more elements
A remote ice floe monitoring system comprising:
- a) a drilling structure with a tether comprising one or more unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) docking stations;
- b) one or more unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) containing ice floe survey equipment;
- and
- c) a docking station for receiving data from said one or more UUV docking stations,
- wherein said UUV comprises an electric motor, one or more batteries, one or more control processors, and one or more data storage devices, and said one or more UUV docking station connects with one or more UUVs said connection comprising a power connection and a data connection to transmit ice floe survey information from said UUV to said UUV docking station.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.