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AssigneeTeledyne Instruments, Inc.
InventorsJochen Klinke, Adrian M. Abordo, Matthew A. Moldovan, Ronald A. George, Mariah Shannon Lovejoy
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A winch is employed for deploying a probe to a precise depth within a water column for making and recording physical measurement within such water column. More particularly, the winch rapidly unspools a line from an underway vessel, while maintaining minimal but constant line tension, as a probe, tethered to such line, descends within the water column in a “near” free-fall to a predetermined depth and then stops. The line lacks means for communicating its depth to the winch. The probe achieves a predictable descent behavior, even though it is tethered by a line to a winch onboard an underway vessel of unknown velocity and in variable weather conditions. The predictable descent behavior is achieved by maintaining a minimal constant tension on the line within a narrow range. The descent behavior of a probe in “near” free-fall has sufficient predictability to construct an algorithm to correlate descent time with depth. The predictability is sufficient to reduce the risk of collision between the probe and the water bottom to an acceptable level.
A winch for unspooling, halting, and re-spooling a line attached thereto, the line tethering the winch to a probe having negative buoyancy for descending through a water column, the winch comprising:
A process for lowering a probe within a column of water to a target depth, the probe being coupled to a line and having negative buoyancy, the line being spooled onto a winch, the process comprising the following steps:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.