Commissariat a L'energie Atomique

Pierre Biancale

Jean Vertut

Pierre Lemercier

Yves-Paul Corfa

Jean-Pierre Moreau

Pierre L Balligand

Michel Rommens

Jean-Paul Jacquemin

Method and installation for depositing materials on an ocean bed in accordance with a given line in which the autonomous vehicle is displaced on the ocean bed by accurately following said line, whereby the vehicle is provided with a hopper, a ship is moved on the surface of the ocean roughly in accordance with said line, the materials are discharged from this ship towards the hopper and are guided by means of a pipe suspended beneath the ship and whose lower end is not integral with the hopper, wherein the propulsion means of the pipe disposed at the lower end thereof are operated so that the lower end of the pipe is forced to remain above the hopper.

Method for depositing material on the ocean bed and apparatus for

Method and installation for depositing materials on an ocean bed in accordance with a given line in which the autonomous vehicle is displaced on the ocean bed by accurately following said line whereby the vehicle is provided with a hopper, a ship is moved on the surface of the ocean roughly in accordance with said line, the materials are discharged from this ship towards the hopper and are guided by means of a pipe suspended beneath the ship and whose lower end is not integral with the hopper, wherein the propulsion means of the pipe disposed at the lower end thereof are operated so that the lower end of the pipe is forced to remain above the hopper.

The end of at least one cable is connected to a float and the other end exerts a tractive effort on one or a number of collecting vehicles which land on the bottom at predetermined points with respect to the point of landing of the ballast which is provided with a pile, anchored in the sea bed, then freed from the float and the vehicle. Means initially secured to the ballast and then detached therefrom serve to convert the upward motion of the float to a displacement of the collecting vehicle along the sea floor.

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Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Pierre Biancale