Launch and recovery device

#Vessels (e.g., cargo vessels) may be used to transport goods between land and ships (e.g., cargo ships). Delivering the cargo vessels from land to the ships may be accomplished by, e.g., floating the cargo vessel to the ship and recovering the cargo vessel using, e.g., a “capture vessel”, “capture structure”, “capture object”, etc. Recovering such cargo vessels from, e.g., the surface or near surface of the water (e.g., ocean, lake, etc.) may prove onerous for multiple reasons. For example, the dynamic displacements between the capture vessel and the target vessel (e.g., the cargo vessel) may be unpredictable and elusive. For instance, to satisfactorily align, e.g., a crane, to the target vessel in the water may require the crane to respond (e.g., instantly) to the varying degrees of freedom (e.g., pitch, roll, heave, and yaw of both the crane and target vessel).

#In one implementation, an apparatus configured to capture a target object from a body of water comprises a first rail proximate to a second rail. A first gap portion is formed between at least a portion of the first and second rail. The first gap portion is configured to align and receive at least a portion of the target object as a distance between the first gap portion and at least the portion of the target object decreases. A second gap portion is formed between at least the portion of the first and second rail. The first and second rail are further configured to align and receive at least the portion of the target object with the second gap portion as a distance between the second gap portion and at least the portion of the target object decreases.

#One or more of the following features may be included. One or more stabilizing portions may be configured to stabilize the first and second rail. The one or more stabilizing portions may include one or more ballasts. The one or more stabilizing portions may include one or more portions configured to receive one or more cables operatively connected to a crane. The one or more ballasts may be configured to dynamically stabilize the first and second rail. The one or more ballasts may include a cylinder with one or more slots. At least one of the first and second rail may be further configured to extend and retract. At least one of a motor, an engine, and a thruster may be configured to navigate at least one of the first and second rail. A catch may be configured to, after at least the portion of the target object is proximate to the catch, prevent at least the portion of the target object from moving in one or more directions. At least one of the first and second rail may include at least one of a straight and a curved shape.

#FIG. 1 is an illustrative diagrammatic view of a retrieval process coupled to a distributed computing network according to one or more implementations of the present disclosure;

#FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a client electronic device of FIG. 1 according to one or more implementations of the present disclosure;

#FIG. 3 is an illustrative diagrammatic view of an apparatus according to one or more implementations of the present disclosure;

#Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

#As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present disclosure (and/or aspects thereof) may be embodied as a method, system (e.g., apparatus), or computer program product. Accordingly, the present disclosure (and/or aspects thereof) may take the form of an entirely hardware implementation, an entirely software implementation (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an implementation combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, the present disclosure (and/or aspects thereof) may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.

#Any suitable computer usable or computer readable medium may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. The computer-usable, or computer-readable, storage medium (including a storage device associated with a computing device or client electronic device) may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium may include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a media such as those supporting the internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage device. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be a suitable medium upon which the program is stored, scanned, compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable, storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.