UTILITY LOCATOR APPARATUS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS

• US 20160003961A1
• Filed: 07/01/2014
• Published: 01/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seescan, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Seescan, Inc.
• Inventors: Olsson, Mark S., Martin, Michael J., Merewether, Ray, Stuart, Paul G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,945,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/08 operating with magnetic or electric fields produced or modified by objects or geological structures or by detecting devices with electromagnetic waves G01V3/12
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/081 the magnetic field is produced by the objects or geological structures characterised by the method of magnetic field measurement G01R33/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/10 using induction coils
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/101 by measuring the impedance of the search coil; by measuring features of a resonant circuit comprising the search coil measuring impedance or characteristics derived therefrom G01R27/00, e.g. quality factor G01R27/26
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/102 by measuring amplitude
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/104 using several coupled or uncoupled coils G01V3/101 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/105 forming directly coupled primary and secondary coils or loops
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/107 using compensating coil or loop arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/15 specially adapted for use during transport, e.g. by a person, vehicle or boat
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/16 specially adapted for use from aircraft G01V3/165 - G01V3/175 take precedence

Abstract

Man-portable locator systems for locating buried or otherwise inaccessible pipes, conduits, cables, wires and inserted transmitters using detector arrays and stochastic signal processing and similar techniques to analyze and display multiple target objects at differing frequencies in a layered user interface (UI) are disclosed.

Claims

1. A locator device, comprising:

a sensor array for detecting a magnetic field from the buried object;

a circuit for processing the received magnetic field to generate an output signal;

a processor for receiving the output signal and determining information associated with the buried object based at least in part on the output signal; and

a display for providing an output of the determined information associated with the buried object.