Hydro-quebec

Michel Blain

Luc Provencher

Julien Beaudry

Régis Houde

Serge Sarraillon

Pierre-Luc Richard

Bruce Hazel

Stéphan Gendron

René Morin

Jean Cöté

Richard Laliberté

François Mirallès

Philippe Hamelin

Dominique Thuot

Richard Laliberte

Jean Cote

Francois Miralles

Regis Houde

Stephan Gendron

Rene Morin

A submersible robot for operating a tool relative to a surface of an underwater structure has a tool holder movably mounted on a support assembly provided with a driving arrangement for movably holding the tool in operative position relative to the surface. Position and orientation of the support assembly relative to the surface is locked and adjusted by locking and leveling arrangements. A programmable control unit operates the driving, locking and leveling arrangements and the tool and receives measurements from a sensor unit. The control unit has an operation mode wherein a positioning of the robot is determined and controlled as function of an initial position for defining a first work area, and shifted positions of the robot for defining additional work areas, the work areas having overlapping portions with one another for tracking displacements of the robot relative to the surface of the structure using the sensor unit.

Submersible robot for operating a tool relative to a surface of an underwater structure

A robot for machining a part of structure under water, comprising a machine tool having a chamber receiving a machining element, a support and guiding structure of the machine tool fixable with respect to the part to be machined and having submersible mobile elements and corresponding submersible guiding elements defining axes along which the mobile elements are movable to position the machine tool with respect to the part to be machined, displacement units for displacement of the mobile elements along the axes, a gas supply connecting to the machine tool to inject gas in the chamber, and a programmable control unit for operating the displacement units and the machine tool based on a closed-loop control mode in order to achieve the machining of the part.

Robot for machining a part of structure under water

System and method for tridimensional cartography of a structural surface. Two wires are extended in front and along the structural surface so as to define a reference surface. A measuring unit comprising a laser arrangement and a camera is moved in front of the structural surface so as to progressively scan the surface. Tow distinct light planes directed toward the structural surface are projected by means of the laser arrangement. Images of the structural surface containing lines resulting from an intersection of the light planes with the structural surface and four reference points resulting from an intersection of the light planes with the wires are captured by means of the camera. The images are processed to determine theD coordinates of the lines defining the mapping in a reference system bound to the reference surface considering the position and the orientation of the measuring unit based on the reference points.

System and method for tridimensional cartography of a structural surface

A method and apparatus is disclosed for providing a determined position in real-time of an underwater object using a plurality of sensors operating at various sampling rates and for using the determined position in real-time in order to perform inspection tasks inter alia.

Method and apparatus for determining the position of an underwater object in real-time

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Saint-Amable, Canada

Michel Blain