The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 01, 2018
Filed:
Aug. 31, 2015
Teledyne Instruments, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Jochen Klinke, Ramona, CA (US);
Adrian M. Abordo, Oceanside, CA (US);
Matthew A. Moldovan, Carlsbad, CA (US);
Ronald A. George, Oceanside, CA (US);
Mariah Shannon Lovejoy, San Diego, CA (US);
TELEDYNE INSTRUMENTS, INC., Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Abstract
A winch is employed for deploying a probe to a precise depth within a water column for making and recording physical measurement within such water column. More particularly, the winch rapidly unspools a line from an underway vessel, while maintaining minimal but constant line tension, as a probe, tethered to such line, descends within the water column in a 'near' free-fall to a predetermined depth and then stops. The line lacks means for communicating its depth to the winch. The probe achieves a predictable descent behavior, even though it is tethered by a line to a winch onboard an underway vessel of unknown velocity and in variable weather conditions. The predictable descent behavior is achieved by maintaining a minimal constant tension on the line within a narrow range. The descent behavior of a probe in 'near' free-fall has sufficient predictability to construct an algorithm to correlate descent time with depth. The predictability is sufficient to reduce the risk of collision between the probe and the water bottom to an acceptable level.