Unmanned Underwater Vehicle and Method for Localizing and Examining An Object Arranged At The Bottom Of A Body Of Water and System Having the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
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Abstract
The invention relates to an unmanned underwater vehicle for localizing and examining an object, for example a pipeline, arranged at the bottom of a body of water. For this purpose, the underwater vehicle has object localization means and object examination means. The underwater vehicle has a sonar device with 3D underground sonar for collecting measurement data. The object localization means are designed for three-dimensional acoustic localization of local sections of the object which are arranged both above and below the surface of the bottom of the body of water by means of these measurement data while the underwater vehicle is simultaneously moving away over these local sections for the purpose of examining local sections of the object by means of the object examination means. As a result, the invention allows a pipeline to be simultaneously surveyed and inspected as it is traversed once. The invention also relates to a system having the underwater vehicle and also to a method for localizing and examining the object.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1-15. -15. (canceled)
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16. An unmanned autonomous underwater vehicle for localizing and examining an object arranged at a bottom of a body of water, such as a pipeline or a marine cable, said vehicle comprising:
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an object localization means for localizing the object; an object examination means for examining the object, and a sonar device having a 3D underground sonar for collecting measurement data, wherein, utilizing the measurement data, the sonar device and the object localization means are designed for three-dimensional acoustic localization of local sections of the object that are arranged both above and below the surface of the bottom of the body of water while the underwater vehicle is simultaneously moving along the local sections, thereby examining at least one of the local sections and adjacent local sections of the object utilizing the object examination means. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A system comprising:
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an autonomous underwater vehicle comprising; an object localization means for localizing the object; an object examination means for examining the object, and a sonar device having a 3D underground sonar for collecting measurement data, wherein, utilizing the measurement data, the sonar device and the object localization means are designed for three-dimensional acoustic localization of local sections of the object that are arranged both above and below the surface of the bottom of the body of water while the underwater vehicle is simultaneously moving along the local sections, thereby examining at least one of the local sections and adjacent local sections of the object utilizing the object examination means; a mission planning device for producing control data for controlling the mission; a control data transmission device for transmitting the control data from the mission planning device to the underwater vehicle; a measurement data reading device for reading measurement data stored during the mission; and a measurement data evaluation device for at least one of; classifying sections of the object as sections which at least one of rest on the surface of the bottom of the body of water, are buried under the bottom of the body of water, are partially exposed within the bottom of the body of water, and determining a condition of the object.
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27. A method for localizing and examining an object arranged at the bottom of a body of water, by means of an unmanned underwater vehicle, that comprises an object localization means that localize the object and that has an object examination means that examine the object, said method comprising:
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collecting measurement data utilizing a sonar device with 3D underground sonar of the vehicle localizing, utilizing the object localization means, local sections of the object by utilizing the measurement data in a three-dimensional acoustic manner, while the underwater vehicle is simultaneously moving along the local sections of the object and simultaneously the object examination means examines at least one of the local sections and adjacent local sections of the object, irrespective of whether the local sections are at least one of resting on the surface of the bottom of the body of water, are buried under the bottom of the body of water, and are partially exposed within the bottom of the body of water. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification