Underwater platform with LIDAR and related methods
AssigneeLockheed Martin Corporation
InventorsChristian H. Debrunner, Alan K. Fettinger, Philip A. Bouxsein
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for conducting autonomous underwater inspections of subsea and other underwater structures using a 3D laser mounted on an underwater platform such as AUV, an ROV or a tripod. The systems and methods described herein can be used for scanning underwater structures to gain a better understanding of the underwater structures, such as for example, for the purpose of avoiding collision of an underwater vehicle with the underwater structures and for directing inspection, repair, and manipulation of the underwater structures.
Claims14
A method comprising:
- directing at least one laser beam pulse from a laser that is mounted on a moving underwater vehicle toward an underwater structure while the vehicle is at a first location relative to the underwater structure;
- detecting light that is reflected from the underwater structure using a light detector mounted on the underwater vehicle;
- generating at least one data point cloud from the detected light autonomously in real time, each data point cloud being suitable for generating a scanned three-dimensional virtual model of the underwater structure;
- aligning data points in at least one of the data point clouds to a pre-existing three dimensional virtual model of the underwater structure autonomously in real time;
- and
- while aligning the data points in at least one of the data point clouds to a pre-existing three dimensional virtual model of the underwater structure autonomously in real time, moving the underwater vehicle from the first location to a second location relative to the underwater structure.
A system, comprising:
- a moving underwater vehicle and a three-dimensional laser system mounted on the moving underwater vehicle, the laser system including a steerable laser for projecting a plurality of laser beam pulses toward an underwater structure and a light detector that detects light that is reflected from the underwater structure;
- a point cloud data storage that is in communication with the laser system for storing point cloud data that is autonomously generated in real time by the laser system;
- and
- a data processor in communication with the point cloud data storage that processes first point cloud data from the data storage autonomously in real time, the data processor is configured to autonomously in real time to align data points in the first point cloud data to a pre-existing three dimensional virtual model of the underwater structure to estimate a position and orientation of the underwater vehicle relative to the underwater structure while navigating the moving underwater vehicle near the underwater structure and/or determine whether a structural change in the underwater structure has occurred.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.