Apparatus and method for accurate pipeline surveying

• US 6,768,959 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2003
• Issued: 07/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Ignagni, Mario B.
• Primary Examiner(s): NOLAND, THOMAS
• Application Number:
  US10/378,798
• Publication Number:
  US 20030164053A1
• Time in Patent Office: 511 Days
• Field of Search: 738/658-865, 738/655, 73/10.1, 73/17.9, 73/18.9, 738/665, 702/158, 702/34, 702/36, 702/104, 702/94-95, 702/38-40, 702/150-154, 702/167-169, 701/35, 701/213-214, 701/220-221, 342/357.17
• US Class Current: 702/94
• 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 method for surveying a pipeline, comprising:

measuring characteristics of a pipeline so as to produce measured characteristics;

computing a measured profile of the pipeline;

correlating the measured profile of the pipeline with a reference profile of the pipeline so as to produce an estimated-pig-location error; and

correcting at least one position of a pipeline pig using the estimated-pig-location error.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining reference pipeline characteristics using a survey of the pipeline, wherein correlating the measured profile of the pipeline with a reference profile of the pipeline so as to produce an estimated-pig-location error comprises correlating the reference characteristics with the measured characteristics over distinctive pipeline segments to provide fixes, and wherein the correcting at least one position of a pipeline pig using the estimated-pig-location error comprises correcting the at least one position of the pipeline pig using the position fixes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the measured characteristics and reference characteristics comprise a curvature of a distinctive-measured-pipeline feature and a curvature of distinctive-reference-pipeline feature, respectively.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the measured characteristics and reference characteristics comprise a heading of a distinctive-measured-pipeline feature and a heading of a distinctive-reference-pipeline feature, respectively.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the survey of the pipeline include a survey selected from the group consisting of a surveyor'"'"'s survey, a pig-and-sensor-generated-coordinate-based-pipeline survey, a Global-Position-Sensor-time-correlated-radar survey, and a Global-Position-Sensor-time-correlated-sonar survey.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises:

generating an attitude matrix as a function at the at least one inertial-measurement output;

generating a velocity vector as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output;

generating a position vector as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output; and

generating a measured-geometric profile representative of a curvature and heading of a section of pipeline as a function of the attitude matrix, the velocity vector, and the position vector.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining second reference pipeline characteristics using a second survey of the pipeline;

wherein correlating the measured profile of the pipeline with a reference profile of the pipeline so as to produce an estimated-pig-location error comprises correlating the first and second reference characteristics with the measured characteristics over distinctive pipeline segments to provide position fixes, and wherein the correcting at least one position of a pipeline pig using the estimated-pig-location error comprises correcting the at least one position of the pipeline pig using the position fixes.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second reference characteristics comprise a curvature of a distinctive-reference-pipeline feature.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the second reference characteristics comprise a heading a distinctive-reference-pipeline feature.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the second survey of the pipeline include a survey selected from the group consisting of a surveyor'"'"'s survey, a pig-and-sensor-generated-coordinate-based-pipeline survey, a Global-Position-Sensor-time-correlated-radar survey, and a Global-Position-Sensor-time-correlated-sonar survey.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein

(i) measuring characteristics of a pipeline and computing a measured profile of the pipeline comprises generating at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature using at least one inertial-measurement output from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) that is in communication with the pipeline pig.

(ii) correlating the measured profile of the pipeline with a reference profile of the pipeline so as to produce an estimated-pig-location error comprises correlating at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature with the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature to produce at least one estimated-pig-location error, and

(iii) correcting at least one position of a pipeline pig using the estimated-pig-location error comprises filtering the at least one estimated-pig-location error to provide corrected-inertial-measurement data.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising staring an data storage a datafile containing reference-pipeline-characteristic data defining at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein correlating at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature with the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature to produce at least one estimated-pig-location error comprises correlating the reference-pipeline-characteristic data defining at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature from the datafile with the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature comprises a surveyed-geometric profile of a section of pipeline, wherein the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises a measured-geometric profile representative of the section of pipeline, and wherein correlating the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature with the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises detecting the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature by iteratively comparing the measured-geometric profile against the surveyed-geometric profile.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature comprises a surveyed curvature of a section of pipeline, wherein the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises a measured curvature of the section of pipeline, and wherein correlating the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature with the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises detecting the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature by iteratively comparing the measured curvature against the surveyed curvature.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature comprises a surveyed heading of a section of pipeline, wherein each of the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises a measured heading of the section of pipeline, and wherein correlating the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature with the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises detecting the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature by iteratively comparing the measured heading against the surveyed heading.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature comprises a surveyed curvature and a surveyed heading of a section of pipeline, wherein each of the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises a measured curvature and a measured heading of the section of pipeline, and wherein correlating the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature with the at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises detecting the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature by iteratively comparing the measured curvature and measured heading against the surveyed curvature and surveyed heading, respectively.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein generating at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises generating at least one navigation-solution parameter;

and further comprising correcting the at least one navigation-solution parameter using the corrected-inertial-measurement data.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the at least one distinctive-pipeline-reference feature comprises a surveyed-geometric profile of a section of the pipeline.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the surveyed-geometric profile comprises a longitude coordinate, a latitude coordinate, and an attitude coordinate.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the surveyed-geometric profile of the pipeline comprises a curvature of at least one section of the pipeline.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the surveyed-geometric profile of the pipeline comprises a heading of at least one section of the pipeline.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the surveyed-geometric profile of the pipeline further comprises a curvature of at least one section of the pipeline.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising generating the surveyed-geometric profile from pre-processing-pipeline-survey data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the pre-processing-pipeline-survey data is provided by a map selected from the group consisting of a surveyor'"'"'s map, a pig-and-sensor-generated-coordinate-based-pipeline map, a Global-Position-Sensor-time-correlated-radar map, and a Global-Position-Sensor-time-correlated-sonar map.

26. The method of claim 11, wherein generating at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises:

generating an attitude matrix as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output;

generating a velocity vector as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output; and

generating a measured-geometric profile representative of a curvature of a section of pipeline as a function of the attitude matrix and the velocity vector.

27. The method of claim 11, wherein generating at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises:

generating an attitude matrix as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output;

generating a velocity vector as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output; and

generating a measured-geometric profile representative of a heading of a section of pipeline as a function of the attitude matrix and the velocity vector.

28. The method of claim 11, wherein generating at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises:

generating an attitude matrix as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output;

generating a velocity vector as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output; and

generating a measured-geometric profile representative of a curvature and a heading of a section of pipeline as a function of the attitude matrix and the velocity vector.

29. The method of claim 11, further including generating a pig-distance-traveled data, wherein generating at least one distinctive-pipeline-measured feature comprises:

generating an attitude matrix as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output;

generating a velocity vector as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output;

generating a position vector as a function of the at least one inertial-measurement output; and

generating a measurement-geometric profile representative of a curvature and heading of a section of pipeline as a function of the attitude matrix, the velocity vector, the position vector, and the pig-distance-traveled data.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein generating a pig-distance-traveled data comprises generating pig-distance-traveled data using an odometer apparatus.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the measured-geometric profile comprises a longitude coordinate, a latitude coordinate, and an attitude coordinate.