12331results about "Waterborne vessels" patented technology

An apparatus for generating buoy light signals using a collimated light source. The system provides for communication of system conditions and ambient conditions, and can provide homeland security monitoring. The system senses motion of the buoy and compensates the direction of lighting, and optionally acoustics, being generated out over a body of water. Numerous other transportation related embodiments are described including devices for providing user comfort when flying, automotive signaling, auto parking control, sports bottles, visors, and lures.

Disclosed are systems, methods, and devices related to fixed and transportable structures and vehicles utilizing the integration of solar and wind technologies for generation of electricity. The system generates electricity using solar panels (and / or solar thermal units) and wind turbines, stores and converts electricity, and can be located in various locations either as fixed or portable embodiments including on land, on water, underwater, air and space and may also be housed in a structure to provide electricity for various facilities and uses.

A system allowing persons to operate their computer comfortably while lying in bed. The system has a user friendly keyboard, that provides preselection feedback indicating prior to a keystroke being entered, thus allowing the individual to verify the correct key before pressing down the key. Additional aspects of the system include the user of display goggles with panning control, and a see-through mode. Numerous additional system and methods are described.

A surgical robotic system includes a robotic arm, an end effector movably connected thereto and provided with a movable end effector element driven by an actuator, and a force sensor arranged between the robotic arm and the end effector. The actuator is formed by a hydraulic cylinder. The robotic arm is provided with a hydraulic line connected to said hydraulic cylinder of the end effector.

A lens element has a curved surface mounted adjacent an LED for improving the light transmission efficiency and the dispersal pattern of radiation emitted by the LED.

A deepwater windpower plant (DWP) has a tension leg-type floating platform with an evacuable base for adjusting its buoyancy for installation at ocean depths ranging from 40 meters up to 1.5 kilometers and more. The DWP has a typical offshore wind turbine assembled close to shore which is then towed to a desired installation site on the ocean, and held in place by a gravity anchoring base (GAB), to which an evacuable portion or space of the DWP platform is anchored. The GAB has upwardly extending mooring tethers and a power cable which are brought to the ocean surface by attached buoys. The GAB is sunk to the ocean floor at the installation site under controlled conditions so that the GAB lands flat on the ocean floor. As the GAB sinks to the ocean floor, the mooring tethers and power cable are pulled to the surface by their respective buoys. The GAB is loaded with heavy ballast material that can be dropped from barges on the ocean surface into the upwardly open GAB below the barges.

A plant, generator and rotating member for the production of power from currents in a body of water, comprising a fixedly mounted of floating structure, and a plurality of replaceable generator units (750) supported by the structure and which are driven by the water currents. The structure comprises arms (615, 720, 730). The rotating member (400) comprises a plurality of member sections (410) rotatably mounted on a shaft (405) between an end piece (407) and a tip (406). The generator comprises a contra-rotating rotor (550) and stator (800) connected to respective shafts (500, 820) and bearings, where the stator frame (800) is axially supported (810) on the first shaft (500) and the first shaft (500) at one end thereof is axially supported (810) on the stator frame. The generator according to the invention can be used for the production of electric power, and as an electromotor for the production of mechanical rotational energy.

An apparatus and method for tracking aircraft wingtip position during taxi operations to prevent wingtip ground incursion. A patterned illumination source is attached proximal the wingtips to project a readily discernable target pattern in the direction of taxi travel. At least a portion of the target pattern is reflected off of any obstructions that lie in the straight-line direction of travel, such that the pilot can maneuver to avoid striking the obstruction. By way of example, the patterned illumination source comprises a laser module positioned with the navigation and / or strobe light of the aircraft. The device may be retrofitted to existing aircraft without additional wiring with the control of activation being selectable via power cycling of existing aircraft lighting controls. One aspect of the invention provides a tip tracking module bulb that may be retrofitted into existing light sockets to simplify system installation.

An energy module comprising an energy absorber; and a mooring system, comprising a wing-shaped polymer shell attached to the energy absorber, the wing-shaped polymer shell designed to utilize the force of a passing current to create a downward force and thereby reduce any upward motion in the energy module; and a mooring cable housed inside the wing-shaped polymer shell and anchored to maintain the energy module in a fore and aft and a side-to-side position to provide stability, and to negate a rotational force on the energy module.

A vehicle-mounted generator is powered by relative wind produced by the combination of ambient wind and motion of the vehicle, or by movement of water when mounted on the hull of a water-borne vehicle. A rigid cylindrical housing forms an enclosed interior chamber. Wind asymmetrically enters the chamber through an inlet located on one side of a central longitudinal drive shaft, and exits through an outlet located at the top of the housing. A spiraling parabolic deck forms a floor of the interior chamber, and spirals around the central longitudinal shaft from the bottom of the housing to the outlet at the top. A turbine mounted on the drive shaft within the outlet converts energy of the exiting wind to mechanical energy. An electrical generator converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy for recharging a battery or powering an electric motor.

An offshore liquefied natural gas structure may receive, store, and process liquefied natural gas from carriers. A structure may be a gravity base structure. A structure may include a system of ballast storage areas, transfer equipment to offload liquefied natural gas from a carrier, docking equipment to allow direct mooring with carriers, platforms to elevate equipment, water intake systems to provide water to the structure, wave deflectors, and / or projections extending from a bottom of the structure. A portion of the structure may be composed of lightweight concrete. Pipelines may be coupled to the structure to export processed natural gas onshore. Living quarters, flare towers, and export line metering equipment may be included on the structure.

Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to clathrate hydrate modular storage, applications and utilization processes. In one implementation, the present invention provides a method of creating scalable, easily deployable storage of natural gas and thermal energy by assembling an array of interconnecting, modular gas clathrate hydrate storage units.

A hauling shroud, a cable termination and methods of hauling a fibre optic cable with a pre-connected optic termination along a conduit. The hauling shroud protects the optic termination when being hauled along the conduit. The hauling shroud includes a first housing member and a second housing member such that the first housing member and the second housing member can be joined together to enclose the optic termination. At least one anchoring member is used, for example, connecting pins, such that at least one strengthening element of the fibre optic cable engages with the anchoring member inside an internal cavity formed within the hauling shroud. Alternatively, at least two strengthening elements of the fibre optic cable are attached together to form a loop which engages with the at least one anchoring member, e.g., the connecting pins. This prevents any hauling forces from being applied to the optic termination.

A floating offshore wind turbine and a floating offshore wind farm with at least one floating offshore wind turbine are provided. The floating offshore wind turbine includes a floating platform anchored to an underwater ground, a wind turbine mounted on the floating platform, and a drive. The drive is adapted to horizontally move the floating platform. Further a method for positioning a floating offshore wind turbine is provided.

The invention discloses an ocean submerged buoy system. In the system, buoys are connected with an underwater winch through a communication mooring cable; a plurality of profile measuring instruments are equidistantly arranged at the part of the communication mooring cable between the buoys and the underwater winch, which is adjacent to the buoys; the underwater winch is fixed on a main buoy body; a target detecting system and an ADCP (acoustic Doppler current profiler) are both arranged on the main buoy body; an anchor mooring mechanism comprises a glass floating ball, a response releaser and a ballast anchor which are connected in series through anchor chains; a control center controls the buoy system to regularly float out of the ocean surface and dive into the ocean; the target detecting system detects movable targets; when a movable target enters into a preset range, the control center controls the buoy system to dive into the ocean; and when floating out of the ocean surface, the buoys transmit various received data to a ground shore station. By the ocean submerged buoy system disclosed by the invention, the ocean detected data are transmitted in real time; and the influencestormy waves and other factors on the service life of the buoys is avoided.

A fuel gas supply system of a ship is provided for supplying fuel gas to a high-pressure gas injection engine of the ship, wherein the ship has an LNG fuel tank for storing LNG as fuel and LNG is extracted from an LNG fuel tank of the ship, compressed at a high pressure, gasified, and then supplied to the high-pressure gas injection engine.

A surfboard-based powered water craft is propelled by gas or electric power plant. A water jet pump supplies water under pressure, which is exhausted through a steering nozzle. A steering shaft, carried by the surfboard-based body, pivots in response to movement of a steering arm. The steering arm pivots about a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. The weight of the power plant is carried forward the center, whereby a rider on top of the surfboard based body tends to balance the weight of the power plant.

A system compensates for heave induced pressure fluctuations on a floating rig when a drill string or tubular is lifted off bottom and suspended on the rig, such as when tubular connections are made during MPD, tripping, or when a kick is circulated out during conventional drilling. In one embodiment, a liquid and a gas interface moves along a flow line between a riser and a gas accumulator as the tubular moves up and down. In another embodiment, a pressure relief valve or adjustable choke allows the movement of fluid from the riser when the tubular moves down, and a pump with a pressure regulator moves fluid to the riser when the tubular moves up. In other embodiments, a piston connected with the rig or the riser telescoping joint moves in a fluid container thereby communicating fluid either into or out of the riser annulus.

A sandwich beam including in one example first and second spaced walls, a core configured to maintain a predetermined spacing between the walls when the core is filled with pressurized gas and to resist shear when the beam is loaded in bending and a port for filling the core with gas biasing both walls in tension. The tension tends to increase in the second wall and decrease and cause a compression load in the first wall in response to a sufficiently large applied bending load. A compression element is fixed only with respect to the first wall and is configured (a) to support the compression load so that the beam is stronger at a given gas pressure and (b) to flex sufficiently to allow the beam to be rolled up when the gas is emptied from the core via the port.

Systems and methods for reducing vortex-induced vibration and drag about a marine element are provided. The system can include, but is not limited to, a shell rotatably mounted about the marine element, the shell having opposing edges defining a longitudinal gap configured to allow the shell to snap (be placed) around at least a portion of the marine element. A fin can be positioned along each opposing edge of the longitudinal gap, wherein each fin can extend outwardly from the shell. The fins can be positioned on the shell so as to reduce vortex-induced vibration and minimize drag on the marine element. One or more antifouling agents can be disposed on, in, or about at least a portion of the shell, the fins, or a combination thereof.

The invention is a submersible lighting device, having a substantially water-tight enclosure, and a plurality of lighting elements at the top of that enclosure. A beam of light projecting from at least some of the lighting elements is upwardly disposed from that lighting device, at an angle from the vertical.

A jack up work platform is recited. The work platform comprises a hovercraft vessel outfitted with several jack up legs. The hovercraft can traverse environmentally sensitive terrain such a brackish and freshwater marshes without the need to dig canals that may cause or exacerbate salt water intrusion. Once the drilling or exploration site is reached, the jack up legs may be lowered, lifting the work platform above the surface. Once the vessel is secured on the legs, it may be used like a conventional oil field work platform for drilling, exploration, or construction jobs for which other work platforms or vessels are typically used. The deck of the hovercraft may serve as the work platform or the deck may be provided with a cantilevered work platform extension. The hovercraft will preferably be provided with typical oil field heavy machinery such as a crane for assembly of the legs, and drill stem as well as for work on other structures.

Pulling grip housing assemblies for a fiber optic assembly are disclosed. In one embodiment, the pulling grip assembly is comprised of a pulling grip housing for receiving part of a fiber optic assembly. A pulling grip sleeve is also provided. The pulling grip sleeve has at least one sleeve locking feature suitable for cooperating with a housing locking feature of the pulling grip housing to secure the pulling grip housing to the pulling grip sleeve. In this manner, the pulling grip housing can easily be secured to the pulling grip sleeve and removed when pulling of a fiber optic assembly is completed. The pulling grip housing and pulling grip sleeve can also be reused for pulling other fiber optic assemblies.

An offshore power generator is disclosed. The offshore power generator includes an offshore platform, which can be a new, existing, abandoned, removed, dumped or relocated fixed or floating offshore platform; one or more types of current, wind, wave and other renewable energy generators mounted to the offshore platform; and interconnecting power cables, in electrical communication with the current generators for distribution from the generators to end users.

A method for a short-term prediction of future ship motion in open water to furnish visual cueing information that can be remotely presented to a pilot during an aircraft landing is described. Two sets of samples of the sea surface geometry along a radial azimuth line from a ship as a function of elevation of a sensor are first acquired. These are compensated to remove the components due to the ship's motion. Two wave traces are then separately derived in Cartesian format from the two sets of acquired samples. These wave traces are subjected to a Fast Fourier Transform to detect the amplitudes and phases of the individual wavelength components. The direction of the wavelength components is determined using a measure of their phase change in the scan direction during the time interval between the two scans together with their measured wavelength. The amplitude, direction and phase of each component is utilized together with the known motion characteristics of the moving ship in order to derive a short-term prediction of future ship motion in the time domain. A quiescent period of the ship motion is located by comparing the short-term prediction with the pre-defined operating limit criteria. Finally, a message signal is transmitted to the pilot of the aircraft indicating Time-to-Land and the duration of the quiescent period.

A cable deployment system and method for laying a cable on the sea floor. The cable deployment system includes a cable having a first cable section connected to a riser cable section. The riser cable section includes an armor that is connected to a drum capable of containing a required length of the first cable section. A stinger is attached to the drum and shaped to allow the first cable section to exit the drum. The cable deployment system also includes a tensioning device attached to the drum. The tensioning device is capable of maintaining a tension in the first cable section during deployment of the first cable section from the drum. The method of deploying the cable in deep water from a surface vessel includes the steps of containing the first cable section within the drum and lowering the drum from the surface vessel. An end of the first cable section is secured to the sea floor and the first cable section is deployed from the drum onto the sea floor.

The invention discloses a wave, wind and light comprehensive electricity generation ship on the sea in the technical field of development and utilization of ocean renewable energy sources. Floaters are installed on the two sides of a hull respectively, the floaters vibrate up and down under the action of waves, and wave energy is firstly translated into mechanical energy and then translated into high-pressure energy of hydraulic oil through a hydraulic transition system; a perpendicular shaft wind machine is installed on a deck of the hull, wind rotors rotate under the action of blown wind, and wind energy is firstly translated into mechanical energy and then translated into high-pressure energy of the hydraulic oil through the hydraulic transition system; the hydraulic oil carrying the high-pressure energy works through impacting a hydraulic motor and drives a direct driven electric generator to generate electricity; a photovoltaic cell square matrix is installed on the deck of the hull to absorb solar energy and translate the solar energy into electric energy. The wave, wind and light comprehensive electricity generation ship solves the problems that electricity generation with ocean energy resources is high in unit cost, poor in stability and the like, and greatly improves competitive power of the development and utilization of the ocean renewable energy sources due to the high flexibility of a system.