Seismic Source Fleet Control Without Central Triggering Delays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current seismic data acquisition methods are inefficient due to centralized control of seismic vibrators, leading to delays and increased costs, as all sources need to communicate with a central unit for instructions, which limits productivity and requires extensive equipment and personnel.
Innovation Solution
Decentralizing the decision-making process by equipping each fleet of seismic sources with a local controller that can initiate vibrations based on peer communication and constraint verification, eliminating the need for central unit input.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If centralized control is used to manage seismic sources, then coordination and constraint verification are ensured, but communication delays and processing bottlenecks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the centralized control system into distributed local controllers, each managing a fleet of seismic sources independently. Each local controller verifies constraints and makes decisions autonomously, eliminating the single-point bottleneck of centralized control while maintaining coordination through peer-to-peer communication between controllers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a vertical hierarchical control structure (central unit → local controllers) to a horizontal peer-to-peer control structure (local controllers communicating directly). This dimensional shift in control architecture enables parallel decision-making across multiple fleets, dramatically reducing communication delays while maintaining constraint verification through distributed consensus.
2Reliability
If centralized control processes instructions for each source individually, then precise coordination is achieved, but productivity and acquisition speed decrease
Solution Approach 1:
Local controllers pre-verify constraints and prepare triggering sequences in advance based on received messages from other fleets. By performing constraint verification and sequence preparation locally before vibration events, the system eliminates real-time centralized processing delays while maintaining coordination precision through pre-computed triggering sequences.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables continuous data acquisition by allowing multiple fleets to operate simultaneously with overlapping sweeps. Local controllers continuously monitor constraints and adjust triggering sequences without interruption, eliminating the stop-start nature of centralized batch processing and maintaining continuous productive action across the entire survey array.
3Measurement precision
If more vibration points are densified to improve imaging quality, then data quality increases, but the number of coordination calculations and communication overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent groups dense vibration points into fleets, each managed by a local controller. This segmentation allows the system to handle high-density survey points by distributing coordination tasks across multiple independent controllers rather than overwhelming a single centralized unit, maintaining imaging quality while reducing coordination complexity through distributed management.
Solution Approach 2:
Local controllers autonomously manage their respective fleets' vibration points, verifying constraints and generating triggering sequences without requiring centralized coordination for each individual point. This self-service capability allows dense sampling to be implemented simply by adding more autonomous fleets rather than increasing centralized processing capacity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for seismic exploration of a subsurface formation with a seismic survey system includes directly receiving a message, at a first fleet of seismic sources, from a second fleet; storing the message at the first fleet; verifying one or more constraints related to the first and second fleets, at the first fleet; initiating a triggering sequence of the seismic sources of the first fleet, upon verification of the one or more constraints, with no input from a central unit of the seismic survey system; and performing a sweep based on the triggering sequence.