APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR INSPECTION OF UNDERGROUND PIPES

• US 20110196534A1
• Filed: 12/28/2010
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SewerVUE Technology Corp.
• Original Assignee: SewerVUE Technology Corp.
• Inventors: Neducza, Boriszlav, Ekes, Csaba
• Granted Patent: US 9,115,842 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/259
• CPC Class Codes: F16L 55/48 Indicating the position of the pig or mole in the pipe or conduit
• CPC Class Codes: F17D 5/00 Protection or supervision of installations arrangements for protecting foundations E02D31/00; protecting pipes from damage or internal or external wear F16L57/00, against corrosion and scale F16L58/00; investigation of the fluid-tightness of structures G01M3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/00 Investigating or analysing materials by specific methods not covered by groups G01N1/00 - G01N31/00

Abstract

A system for inspecting an underground conduit from within comprises a data acquisition subsystem configured to be placed within the conduit and to move along at least a portion of the conduit to obtain data regarding the conduit. The system comprises a data storage subsystem configured to be placed within the conduit and to move along the conduit. The data storage subsystem receives and stores at least a portion of the data from the data acquisition subsystem for retrieval after the data acquisition subsystem has moved along the conduit.

Claims

1. A system for inspecting an underground conduit from within, the system comprising:

a data acquisition subsystem configured to be placed within the conduit and to move along at least a portion of the conduit to obtain data regarding the at least a portion of the conduit; and

a data storage subsystem configured to be placed within the conduit and to move along the conduit, the data storage subsystem configured to receive and store at least a portion of the data from the data acquisition subsystem for retrieval after the data acquisition subsystem has moved along the at least a portion of the conduit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data regarding the at least a portion of the conduit comprises ground-penetrating radar data.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the data storage subsystem stores a substantial fraction of the ground-penetrating radar data.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the data storage subsystem stores at least thirty percent of the ground-penetrating radar data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least a portion of the data stored by the data storage subsystem corresponds to a length of the at least a portion of the conduit, wherein the length is greater than at least ten meters.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage subsystem is configured to store data at a rate of at least 10 kilobytes per second.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition subsystem comprises:

a body portion;

a support portion configured to be in direct physical contact with the conduit or with material within the conduit so as to provide support for the body portion; and

one or more antennas configured to be positionable in physical proximity to an inner surface of the conduit.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the support portion comprises at least one travel-facilitating member configured to provide locomotion of the data acquisition subsystem along a longitudinal axis of the conduit.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one travel-facilitating member comprises at least one of the group consisting of:

wheels, sleds, treads, tracks, hovercrafts, and flotation devices.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more antennas are adjustably mounted to the body portion so as to controllably vary a distance between the one or more antennas and the inner surface of the conduit.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition subsystem comprises:

a body portion;

a support portion configured to provide support for the body portion;

at least one horn antenna; and

a mirror configured to adjustably reflect a signal from the at least one horn antenna towards an inner surface of the conduit.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one horn antenna comprises an ultra-wideband horn antenna.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the data acquisition subsystem further comprises at least one camera configured to monitor the one or more antennas.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising an above-ground control subsystem that provides at least one control signal to the data acquisition subsystem, wherein the data acquisition subsystem is responsive to the at least one control signal to control one or more aspects of the data acquisition subsystem.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one of the data acquisition subsystem and the data storage subsystem is tethered to the above-ground control system by a data conduit having a cross-sectional area of less than 0.2 square inches.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one of the data acquisition subsystem and the data storage subsystem is tethered to the above-ground control system by a data conduit having a length of greater than 100 meters.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition subsystem comprises one or more cameras.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein at least one of the one or more cameras is a wide-spectrum camera.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the data acquisition subsystem comprises at least one camera facing in a forward direction with respect to a direction of travel of the data acquisition device within the conduit, at least one camera facing in a direction substantially opposite to the forward direction

20. An apparatus for inspecting an underground conduit from within, the apparatus comprising:

a data acquisition device configured to be placed within the conduit and to move along a first portion of the conduit to obtain data regarding the first portion of the conduit; and

a memory device configured to;

be positioned within the conduit and operationally coupled to the data acquisition device while positioned within the conduit;

travel along a second portion of the conduit; and

store at least a portion of the data from the data acquisition device for retrieval after the data acquisition device has moved along the first portion of the conduit.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the memory device is contained within a container that is liquid-tight.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the memory device is configured to provide wireless accessibility to data stored by the memory device.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the container comprises a lid configured to be manually removable to facilitate data transmission by providing physical access to the memory device.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the second portion of the conduit is coextensive with at least some of the first portion of the conduit.

25. A method for inspecting an underground conduit from within, comprising:

introducing a data acquisition device into the underground conduit;

introducing a memory device into the underground conduit;

moving the data acquisition device along a longitudinal axis of the underground conduit;

obtaining data regarding at least a portion of the underground conduit; and

storing at least a portion of the data on the memory device while the memory device is positioned within the underground conduit.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising transmitting a second portion of the data to a location outside of the underground conduit.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the second portion of the data comprises to data provided by one or more cameras of the data acquisition device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein at least one of the one or more cameras is a wide-spectrum camera.