USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Dana C Lynn

William H Lewis

Andrew J Field

Christopher N Sears

Donald Maxwell

Frank S Halliwell

Adamandios G Gafos

A platform assembly of circular plates are yieldably held positioned by a support mounted on an underwater vehicle propelled under remote control within seawater to a location below an underwater surface such as the bottom of a ship hull, for surface measurement survey of such surface through sensors that are projected upwardly from the positioned platform assembly into contact with the surface under spring bias pressure established during survey measurement.

Underwater inspection measurement survey

An acoustic data acquisition system for shipboard use is disclosed that allows for underwater acoustic data measurements at preselected submerged marine structural coordinates using a free swimming, quiet dynamically positionable remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Moreover, the disclosure provides a method of performing acoustic data acquisition with an ROV by first inputting the marine structural features by use of a computer aided design subsystem, determining the required trajectory path and hovering coordinates for data measurements, next, establishing the acoustic telemetry system for the remotely operated vehicle's control system to operate within and make an absolute positional fix to the marine structure's coordinates then, establish the ambient acoustic conditions of the worksite. The system is monitored and controlled from a computer based system. The system includes an ROV subsystem that operates in conjunction with a computer based long baseline underwater telemetry and positioning control subsystem, an acoustic transducer array attached to the ROV and a real time data-coordinate storage subsystem. A particular type of transducer suitable for use with this vehicle is a passive acoustic transducer array (hydrophones) that measures low level sound pressures and phase data that provides a detailed description of the sound power field emitted over the surface of the marine structure. Applications include oil/gas pipeline leak detection and location of malfunctioning underwater marine equipment.

Underwater acoustic data acquisition system

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Severna Park, MD, United States of America

Dana C Lynn