Case 14094

Sub Sea Vehicle and Method of Use: Vertical Glider Robot (VGR)

Keywords:

Subsea exploration, underwater delivery, vertical glider robot (VGR)

Applications:
  • Oil exploration operations and oceanographic research exploration in subsea environment
  • Autonomous delivery of equipment and sensor systems to precise location on the sea floor
  • Provide critical data about ocean conditions (temperature, salinity, pH levels), monitoring fish, seafloor boundary layer flow and sediment analysis

Problem:

    Oil exploration operations in subsea environment

Technology:

This invention describes a subsea vehicle to support deployment of equipment, sensors etc. in subsea oilfield activities hence referred to as a Vertical Glider Robot (VGR) and a method of use that allows deployment of the VGR in any needed number simultaneously or at predetermined time intervals between each other. This invention can be used to deploy any number of VGRs and their payloads on designated targets with high accuracy. The VGR glides or falls vertically when deployed. The transport does not require large energy sources, though small energy sources may be used to power onboard electronics.

Advantages:
  • Fast and high accuracy deployment with minimum hardware
  • Minimal power usage
  • Capable of carrying payload

Inventors:
  • Julio Guerrero (Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT)
  • Charles Kirby Ambler (Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT)
  • Franz S. Hover (Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT)
  • Brooks Louis-Kiguchi Reed (Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT)
  • Robert Hummel (Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT)

Intellectual Property:

PCT Patent Application Number PCT/US2010/061520, filed on December 21, 2010

US Patent Application Number 12/871433, filed on August 30, 2010

Publications:

N/A

Last revised: April 29, 2013

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