Method and seismic data acquisition system includes a streamer spread including (i) a streamer having receivers for recording seismic data and (ii) a connecting cable connecting the streamer to a towing vessel; a collar device configured to move along the connecting cable, between the towing vessel and the streamer; and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) attached to the collar device with an umbilical and configured to carry an interchangeable payload.

An unmanned underwater vehicle having one, some, or all of an integrated communication control fin, a ballast and trim control, a reusable trigger mechanism for a drop weight, and a visual hull display. Furthermore, associated methods are also provided.

Disclosed is a TMS for an optical fiber remote control submersible, including an upper cylinder equipped with a counterweight and a lower cylinder equipped with a buoy; the upper cylinder and the lower cylinder are sleeved with each other, and matched electromagnets and iron plates are respectively installed in the two parts; the upper cylinder is connected with a mother ship through a light armoured optical power cable, and the light armoured optical power cable may provide electric power for the electromagnets, and the lower cylinder is connected with a submersible through a light load-bearing optical fiber cable; and an end of the light armoured optical power cable inside the upper cylinder is optically connected with an end of the light load-bearing optical fiber cable inside the lower cylinder.

An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for recording seismic signals during a marine seismic survey. The AUV includes a body extending along an axis X and having a head portion, a middle portion, and a tail portion, wherein the middle portion is sandwiched between the head portion and the tail portion along the X axis; a cross-section of the middle portion, substantially perpendicular on the X axis, having a triangular-like shape; the head portion including a base portion having the triangular-like shape and configured to match the middle portion; the head portion having a tip that, when projected along the X axis on the base portion, substantially coincides with a centroid of the base portion having the triangular-like shape; and a seismic payload located within the body and configured to record seismic signals.

This disclosure relates generally to waste collection, storage, and retrieval from water. Aspects of this disclosure relate to submersible cleaning vehicles, filter systems, ships, communication systems, autonomous navigation, and computer systems. The submersible cleaning vehicle can navigate underwater to capture waste in filters. Abase station can support the submersible cleaning vehicle.

Many different types of systems are utilized or tasks are performed in a marine environment. The present invention provides various configurations of unmanned vehicles, or drones, that can be operated and/or controlled for such systems or tasks. One or more unmanned vehicles can be integrated with a dedicated marine electronic device of a marine vessel for autonomous control and operation. Additionally or alternatively, the unmanned vehicle can be manually remote operated during use in the marine environment. Such unmanned vehicles can be utilized in many different marine environment systems or tasks, including, for example, navigation, sonar, radar, search and rescue, video streaming, alert functionality, among many others. However, as contemplated by the present invention, the marine environment provides many unique challenges that may be accounted for with operation and control of an unmanned vehicle.

A fish-like underwater robot includes a shell, a driving assembly and an integrated tension and swing component. The integrated tension and swing component includes a plurality of tension ropes and tension elements. Every two adjacent tension elements are connected in series through the plurality of tension ropes. The driving assembly and the integrated tension and swing component are disposed inside the shell. The driving assembly is disposed at a head of the shell. The integrated tension and swing component has an end connected to a tail of the shell and an end connected to the driving assembly. When the fish-like underwater robot is used, the driving assembly drives the integrated tension and swing component to swing to generate power for forward movement. A traditional fish-like tail swing structure is replaced with an integrated tension skeleton structure.

Laser cleaning apparatus (100) comprising: a laser system (102) configured to output laser light having a power, a wavelength, a temporal characteristic and a divergence; a delivery cable (106) to deliver the laser light to a cleaning head; a cleaning head (110) comprising: an output aperture and output optics (116) configured to focus the laser light (104) to have a fluence at a focal plane (126) that is greater than an ablation threshold of a surface contaminant to be removed from a surface to be cleaned; scanning apparatus (118) to scan the laser light in at least one dimension across a scan region within the focal plane to cause the scanning laser light to have an effective divergence greater than the divergence of the laser light and to have a corresponding safe working distance from the output aperture determined by the effective divergence, the power, the wavelength and the temporal characteristic; and scan monitoring apparatus (120) to monitor the effective divergence of the scanning laser light and to generate an alarm signal (108) in response to determining that the effective divergence has changed.

A method for cycling autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that record seismic signals during a marine seismic survey. The method includes deploying plural current AUVs on the ocean bottom; recording the seismic signals during the marine seismic survey with plural current AUVs; releasing from an underwater base a new AUV to replace a corresponding current AUV from the plural current AUVs; recovering the current AUV; and continuing to record the seismic signals with the new AUV.

A device and method for sampling underwater parameters is provided. The device is configured to be removably secured to, and navigated along a length of, an underwater cable during an underwater cable recovery operation. The device may include one or more sampling elements configured to sample underwater parameters while the device moves along the length of the underwater cable. The device may include a computing unit in communication with the one or more sampling elements which is configured to receive output data of the one or more sampling elements and record the output data for subsequent analysis.