Deep-sea mining system

Abstract

The invention relates to a deep-sea mining system which comprises a mining AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), a seabed wireless charging base station, a nodule cage, a lifting device, a laying and recycling system and a production support mother ship. The multiple mining AUVs, the nodule cage and the lifting device are in communication connection and positioning with the mother ship through underwater sound, the seabed wireless charging base station is connected with the mother ship through a tape cable, and an electric power and information transmission line is arranged in the tape cable. The mining AUV is provided with bionic fins, mechanical legs and a picking manipulator, the mining AUV moves on the seabed in a floating mode or a mechanical leg crawling mode, and the picking manipulator is used for collecting mineral products on the seabed. The deep-sea mining system has good environmental benefits and economic benefits. The method mainly comprises the steps that contact with a deposition layer is small, and disturbance to sediments is small; the mining AUV can identify and avoid nodules containing life; and the cost can be reduced without stand pipes.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a system in the field of underwater engineering technology, in particular to a decentralized deep-sea mining system. Background Art

[0002] The vast ocean is a huge treasure house, which contains a large number of mineral resources represented by coastal composite sand deposits, seafloor polymetallic nodules, and seafloor oil and gas resources. In order to accelerate the development and utilization of seafloor polymetallic nodules, cobalt-rich crusts, etc., it is necessary to vigorously promote the research and development of deep-sea mining equipment technology. At present, the deep-sea mining system solutions widely used in major countries in the world are mainly composed of mother ships (or platforms), seafloor mining vehicles, and pipeline lifting systems. The pipeline lifting system connects the mother ship and the seafloor mining vehicle, and transports the minerals collected by the seafloor mining vehicle to the mother ship through a pipeline. This system requires the mother ship to be specially designed, with huge investment and lack of flexibility. It is usually suitable for large-scale mining in deep-sea mining areas. Before large-scale mining in deep-sea mining areas, local trial mining of deep-sea mining areas is usually required. A considerable number of ore samples are obtained through trial mining to evaluate the abundance of the mining area, environmental impact, etc. The trial mining requires a small initial investment in the deep-sea mining system. At the same time, there are many unknown factors in the environmental impact that deep-sea mining may cause, including sediment disturbance, noise / light / pollutant release, and other impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. This requires that the deep-sea mining system has good environmental benefits. For these requirements, the existing deep-sea mining system solutions are not satisfactory.

[0003] In summary, it is necessary to develop a decentralized deep-sea mining integrated system based on the principle of gravity-buoyancy elevators, adopt a subversive new model that is independent of the ore pipeline transportation system, break through the difficult-to-solve technical bottlenecks of traditional ore lifting and long-distance transportation systems, such as weak reliability, high risk of blockage of large-particle solid-liquid two-phase flow, pump pipe corrosion, wear, and impact, reduce resource investment and safety risks in the installation, production, maintenance, and natural disaster avoidance stages of deep-sea mining, enrich the top-level design of deep-sea resource development and new ideas for the construction of deep-sea technology chains, simplify the system engineering architecture of deep-sea mineral resource development, and form a new green, environmentally friendly, safe, reliable, low-cost, high environmental benefit, intelligent and efficient deep-sea mineral resource development system such as polymetallic nodules and cobalt-rich crusts. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present invention proposes a new deep-sea mining system, which is different from the traditional deep-sea mining system consisting of seabed production tools, risers and lifting systems, deployment and recovery systems, and production support ships. The new deep-sea mining system is a decentralized deep-sea mining system, which mainly consists of a new mining AUV, a seabed wireless charging base station, a nodule cage and its lifting device, a deployment and recovery system, and a production support mother ship.

[0005] To achieve the above purpose, the technical solution of the present invention is: a deep-sea mining system, including a mining AUV, a seabed wireless charging base station, a nodule cage and a lifting device, a deployment and recovery system, and a production support mother ship. Multiple mining AUVs, nodule cages and lifting devices are connected and positioned with the mother ship through hydroacoustic communication, and the seabed wireless charging base station is connected to the mother ship through a ribbon cable, and the ribbon cable has power and information transmission lines.

[0006] Furthermore, the mining AUV is equipped with bionic fins, mechanical legs and picking manipulators. The mining AUV moves on the seabed by floating or crawling with mechanical legs, and uses picking manipulators to collect minerals on the seabed.

[0007] Furthermore, the mining AUV will place the collected seabed minerals into a nodule cage nearby. When the nodule cage is full of seabed minerals, the lifting device will dock with the nodule cage to jointly transport the seabed minerals to the sea surface. The deployment and recovery system will recover the nodule cage and its lifting device onto the mother ship, unload the seabed minerals in the nodule cage, and then redeploy it.

[0008] Furthermore, the lifting device can carry the nodule cages between the mother ship and the seabed mining area.

[0009] Furthermore, the deep-sea mining system configures the number of mining AUVs, nodule cages and their lifting devices according to the specific needs of mining deep-sea mineral resources.

[0010] The beneficial effects of the present invention are:

[0011] The new deep-sea mining system of the present invention has good environmental and economic benefits. The main benefits include: less contact with the sediment layer and less disturbance to the sediment; the new mining AUV can identify and avoid nodules containing life; no riser can reduce costs; production can start on a small scale and then expand in scale. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Figure 1 It is a diagram of the novel deep sea mining system of the present invention;

[0013] In the figure: 1-autonomous mining unit; 2-nodule cage; 3-communication transfer base station; 4-lifting system; 5-mother ship; 6-deployment and recovery device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0015] The novel deep-sea mining system of the present invention uses a novel mining AUV cluster as a seabed production tool. The novel mining AUV is equipped with bionic fins, mechanical legs and picking manipulators, etc., so that the novel mining AUV can move on the seabed in a floating manner or in a crawling manner using mechanical legs, and use picking manipulators to collect minerals on the seabed. It has high maneuverability and has less impact on the seabed environment.

[0016] At the same time, the new mining AUV is equipped with a submarine wireless charging base station; the new mining AUV places the collected seabed minerals in the nodule cage nearby. When the nodule cage is full of seabed minerals, the lifting device docks with the nodule cage to jointly transport the seabed minerals to the sea surface; the deployment and recovery system recovers the nodule cage and its lifting device to the mother ship, unloads the seabed minerals in the nodule cage and then deploys it again. According to the specific needs of mining deep-sea mineral resources, the number of new mining AUVs, nodule cages and their lifting devices can be reasonably controlled, thereby controlling the investment, which has high flexibility.

[0017] like Figure 1 As shown, a new deep-sea mining system provided by an embodiment of the present invention includes: a new mining AUV (autonomous mining unit 1), a seabed wireless charging base station, a nodule cage 2 and a lifting device 4, a deployment and recovery device 6, and a production support mother ship 6. The entire deep-sea mining system is composed of multiple new mining AUVs, nodule cages 2 and their lifting devices 4, and the new mining AUVs, nodule cages 2 and lifting devices 4 and the surface mother ship 6 communicate and locate through hydroacoustics. The seabed wireless charging base station is connected to the mother ship 6 through a belt cable, and there are power and information transmission lines in the belt cable. Among them, the new mining AUV includes: a main structure, a buoyancy material, an electric control device, a bionic propulsion device, a mechanical leg crawling device, a hydroacoustic communication positioning device, a visual recognition device, and a seabed mineral picking manipulator.

[0018] The new deep-sea mining system can be used to mine mineral resources in deep-sea seabed areas. Its typical application scenario for mining deep-sea polymetallic nodules is: the mother ship arrives at the operating sea area; deploys the submarine wireless charging station, AUV, nodule cage and its lifting device; the new mining AUV moves on the seabed in a floating or crawling manner, autonomously identifies nodules, and places the collected nodules in the nodule cage; the nodule cage lifting device is docked with the nodule cage (after the nodules are fully collected, the corresponding signal is fed back to the nodule cage lifting device through hydroacoustic communication), and the nodule cage lifting device is adjusted to a positive buoyancy state through the buoyancy adjustment device in the nodule cage lifting device, and then returns to the sea surface, and is guided to the vicinity of the mother ship, and is recovered by the deployment and recovery system on the mother ship. After the collected nodules are unloaded to the mother ship, the nodule cage and its lifting device are redeployed (adjusted to a negative buoyancy state when empty). When the lifting device carrying the nodule cage arrives at the seabed mining area, it detaches from the empty nodule cage and re-docks another fully loaded nodule cage to continue the lifting operation; when the new mining AUV is low on power, it docks with the seabed wireless charging station and charges; finally, the AUV, wireless charging station, nodule cage and its lifting device are recovered to the mother ship, completing the entire operation process.

[0019] The new deep-sea mining system of the present invention has significant characteristics and substantial progress compared with the prior art. The new deep-sea mining system will collect minerals and transport tasks respectively by the new mining AUV and the nodule cage and its lifting device. The new mining AUV has a compact structure and does not need to have a large load capacity. The power is mainly used for mining, and the operation efficiency is relatively high; the nodule cage has a simple structure and low cost, and its volume is mainly used for temporary storage of seabed minerals; the lifting device can carry the nodule cage to shuttle between the mother ship and the seabed mining area. The system is simple and reliable, does not require large power, works intermittently, and has a large load lifting capacity. In addition, the new deep-sea mining system eliminates the riser connecting the water surface and the underwater, and the operation support mother ship can use a conventional marine work vessel. The new deep-sea mining system solution has good scientificity, is more effective and flexible, and has low cost and strong practicality. It is suitable for local trial mining and large-scale mining of various deep-sea mineral resources such as deep-sea polymetallic nodules and cobalt-rich crusts.

Claims

1. A deep sea mining system, characterized in that: It includes mining AUV, seabed wireless charging base station, nodule cage and lifting device, deployment and recovery system and production support mother ship. Multiple mining AUV, nodule cage and lifting device are connected and positioned with the mother ship through hydroacoustic communication. The seabed wireless charging base station is connected to the mother ship through a belt cable, which contains power and information transmission lines.

2. The deep sea mining system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The mining AUV is equipped with bionic fins, mechanical legs and picking manipulators. The mining AUV moves on the seabed by floating or crawling with mechanical legs, and uses picking manipulators to collect minerals on the seabed.

3. The deep sea mining system according to claim 2, characterized in that: The mining AUV places the collected seabed minerals into a nodule cage nearby. When the nodule cage is full of seabed minerals, the lifting device docks with the nodule cage to jointly transport the seabed minerals to the sea surface. The deployment and recovery system recovers the nodule cage and its lifting device onto the mother ship, unloads the seabed minerals in the nodule cage and then redeploys it.

4. The deep sea mining system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The lifting device is capable of carrying nodule cages between the mother ship and the seabed mining area.

5. The deep sea mining system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The deep-sea mining system configures the number of mining AUVs, nodule cages and their lifting devices according to the specific needs of mining deep-sea mineral resources.

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