ROV-Mediated AUV Deployment for Seismic Surveying
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for deploying and retrieving autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in marine seismic surveys face challenges, particularly in deep-water situations, as they require direct communication with surface vessels and have limitations in power and efficiency for deployment and recovery.
Innovation Solution
The use of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) or other underwater vehicle to deploy and retrieve AUVs on or near the seabed, eliminating the need for direct communication with surface vessels and enabling faster and more efficient deployment and recovery by using guidance systems and acoustic positioning for navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If AUVs are directly deployed and recovered from a surface vessel, then the system can operate in deep-water situations, but the AUV requires enough power to travel to the bottom and back, which is very challenging
Solution Approach 1:
An underwater vehicle serves as an intermediary platform between the surface vessel and the AUVs. The underwater vehicle receives AUVs from the surface vessel and deploys them to the seabed, eliminating the need for AUVs to travel the entire distance from surface to seabed and back, thus reducing their power requirements while maintaining deep-water operational capability
Solution Approach 2:
The deployment and recovery process is segmented into multiple stages: surface vessel to underwater vehicle, and underwater vehicle to AUV. This segmentation allows the power-demanding travel portion to be handled by the underwater vehicle with larger power capacity, while AUVs only need power for localized operations near the seabed
2Loss of information
If AUVs directly communicate with the surface vessel, then coordination is possible, but communications encounter numerous difficulties in deep-water situations
Solution Approach 1:
The underwater vehicle acts as a communication intermediary, receiving commands from the surface vessel and relaying them to AUVs locally. This intermediate communication layer reduces the complexity and improves reliability of direct long-range communications between surface vessels and AUVs in deep-water environments
3Productivity
If conventional deployment methods are used, then surface vessels can deploy AUVs, but the process is slow and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The underwater vehicle is pre-positioned and prepared with AUVs before the actual deployment mission begins. This preliminary preparation allows for faster execution of deployment and recovery operations, as the infrastructure is already in place rather than being set up during the mission
Solution Approach 2:
The underwater vehicle serves as an intermediate platform that enables more efficient transfer and deployment of AUVs compared to direct surface-to-seabed operations, thereby increasing productivity and reducing the time required for deployment and recovery cycles
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Apparatuses, systems, and methods for the deployment of a plurality of autonomous underwater seismic vehicles (AUVs) on or near the seabed based on acoustic communications with an underwater vehicle, such as a remotely operated vehicle. In an embodiment, the underwater vehicle is lowered from a surface vessel along with a subsea station with a plurality of AUVs. The AUVs are configured to acoustically communicate with the underwater vehicle or a second surface vessel for deployment and retrieval operations. The underwater vehicle and/or second surface vessel is configured to instruct the AUVs to leave the subsea station or underwater vehicle and to travel to their intended seabed destination. The underwater vehicle and/or second surface vessel is also configured to selectively instruct the AUVs to leave the seabed and return to a seabed location and/or a subsea station for retrieval.