Apparatus and method for accurate pipeline surveying

• US 20030164053A1
• Filed: 03/04/2003
• Published: 09/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Ignagni, Mario B.
• Granted Patent: US 6,768,959 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/866.5
• CPC Class Codes: F16L 2101/30 Inspecting, measuring or testing
• CPC Class Codes: F16L 55/48 Indicating the position of the pig or mole in the pipe or conduit
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/281 for measuring contour or curvature along an axis, e.g. axial curvature of a pipeline or along a series of feeder rollers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/00 Measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, persons, animals or other moving solid bodies, e.g. using odometers, using pedometers

Abstract

A pipeline surveying system including a pipeline pig can accurately provide a pipeline profile after correlation with a previously determined GPS survey. An inertial measurement unit located in the pig determines a pipeline profile as it travels through the pipeline and correlates the measured profile with the GPS survey.

Claims

1. A pipeline surveying system, comprising:

a pipeline pig;

an inertial measurement unit located in the pig;

means for calculating pig attitude, velocity, and position data based on outputs from the inertial measurement unit;

means for determining pipeline characteristic data based on output from the inertial measurement unit;

file storing reference pipeline characteristic data;

means for correlating determined pipeline characteristic data with reference pipeline characteristic data; and

a filter for providing corrected pig attitude, velocity, and position data.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the inertial measurement unit, comprises:

a triad of gyros outputting a sequence of incremental attitude data; and

a triad of accelerometers outputting a sequence of velocity data.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an odometer that yields incremental distance traveled along the pipeline over a period of time and aids in correlating the determined pipeline characteristic data with the reference pipeline characteristic data.

4. A pipeline surveying system, comprising:

a carrier means adapted for traveling through a pipeline;

an inertial system mounted within the carrier means for measuring dynamic characteristics of the carrier means within the pipeline and generating first signals representative of the characteristics;

sensor means mounted within the carrier means for measuring incremental distances traveled by the carrier means along the pipeline over intervals of time and aids in correlation of first and second signals; and

recorder means mounted within the carrier means for storing second signals, previously determined, for subsequent retrieval, whereby upon retrieval the first and second signals are correlated to yield accurate pig position along the pipeline.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the inertial system, comprises:

a triad of gyros outputting signals representative of a sequence of incremental attitude data; and

a triad of accelerometers outputting signals representative of a sequence of velocity data.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising a Kalman filter producing optimal corrections to the first signals.

7. The system of claim 4 wherein the sensor means is an odometer that aids in correlating the first and second signals.

8. A method for surveying a pipeline, comprising the steps of:

measuring and computing a profile of a pipeline;

correlating the measured profile of the pipeline with a reference profile of the pipeline; and

correcting pig position based on the correlation of the measured profile and the reference profile.

9. A method for surveying a pipeline, comprising the steps of:

determining first reference pipeline characteristics from a pig running through the pipeline;

determining second reference pipeline characteristics from a GPS survey of the pipeline profile;

measuring pipeline characteristics;

correlating the reference characteristics with the measured pipeline characteristics over distinctive pipeline segments to provide position fixes during survey of the entire pipeline.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the measured and reference characteristics are curvature of the distinctive pipeline segment.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the measured and reference characteristics are a heading change of the distinctive pipeline segment.