Systems for reducing or preventing pluggage of spoil material in an excavation vacuum apparatus are disclosed. The pluggage prevention system of the excavation vacuum apparatus may trigger one or more mitigation operations (e.g., addition of water through spray nozzles) to loosen the build-up of spoil material and/or to at least partially shut down the excavation vacuum apparatus to prevent more material being fed to the system.

Systems and methods of restoring a lake including dredging, island creation, water treatment, real estate development, computer modeling of environmental conditions, wave height reduction, sediment removal and encapsulation, bathymetry contouring, littoral zone restoration, plant restoration, and/or fish restoration.

A dragging apparatus has a carriage body. The carriage body has at least one attachment portion. The attachment portion is configured to connect the carriage body to a drag barge. At least one ripper shank is disposed on the carriage body. The ripper shank extends downwardly from the carriage body. A method for operating a dragging apparatus includes providing a barge and a dragging apparatus, and then lowering the dragging apparatus to a floor or bottom of a body of water to agitate the floor or bottom.

A shovel includes an attachment attached to an upper turning body and a processor configured to calculate a weight of a load carried in the attachment in accordance with a mode selected from a plurality of modes with respect to timing of detection.

The present invention relates to a system and its equipments to collect mineral ores on the seabed and to float them up to the sea surface by utilizing the buoyancy of a liquid having a specific gravity less than that of water at room temperature. It is an underwater navigator capable of autonomous navigation that descends at a specific gravity of around 1.0 with a ballast that cancels buoyancy when descending from the sea surface, and ascends at a specific gravity of around 1.0 by exchanging mineral ores with the ballast on the seabed. On the seafloor, it is accompanied by a device that collects seabed mineral ores for the underwater vehicle.

An excavation system that is configured to utilize water pressure and vacuum to provide removal of terrain from an area wherein the excavation system is further configured to provide detection and alert of subterranean objects in the excavation area. The excavation system includes a digging wand that is operably coupled to a water source. The digging wand includes a plurality of water jets that are configured to emit water. The digging wand further includes in the nozzle thereof a plurality of detection transceivers. The detection transceivers are configured to provide detection of subterranean objects proximate the nozzle of the digging wand during the excavation process. The controller of the present invention includes a screen that provides image data of the area proximate the nozzle. The controller further provides at least two operational modes wherein one of the operational modes provides reduction of water pressure upon detection of a subterranean object.

A method of dredging a bottom of a body of water is provided. Winching stations are positioned around the perimeter of an area to be dredged and a cable from each winching station is connected to a float. The cables pass through a variable resistance pulley assembly attached to a submersible assembly having a cutter and a submersible pump and are tensioned to suspend the submersible assembly. The cutter and submersible pump are activated and the winches are controlled to move the submersible assembly in a dredging pattern. When an obstacle is encountered the resistance of the pulley assembly is decreased and sufficient tension is applied to the cables to lift the submersible assembly toward the float.

Devices, apparatus, systems, vehicles and methods for cleaning contaminated tanks without introducing free water or liquefier into the tanks. A mobile vehicle with left and right sets of tracks can support a gathering arm assembly, a bucket assembly, an eductor vacuum, and a pump/tank assembly that can be used to remove and break up waste debris from a contaminated tank.

A system for excavating sediment deposits from water storage reservoirs that equalizes the mass flow of sediment entering the reservoir with the sediment mass in the combined discharge from a dredge and the reservoir outlet system to the downstream water course. One or more remote instrument stations located on the inflow streams to the reservoir collect data that is used by the dredge control system to adjust the mass flow output from the dredge using data collected from the remote reservoir outlet instrumentation located downstream of the reservoir.

A method for controlling the movement of an articulated hose mount having at least n>2 members, wherein a change in angle can be induced between neighboring members with the help of a respective drive includes:

a) determining the starting position of the n members with the help of sensors;
b) input of a direction vector and a velocity parameter;
c) determining a target position, which should be taken by a suction crown, on the free end of the last member;
d) determining n angle changes which must be carried out on the n members in order to reach the target position while maintaining the following condition: d.i. the suction crown moves into the target position along a straight path of movement;
e) controlling the drives associated with the n members in order to perform the predetermined angle change on the n members; and
f) cyclically repeating the aforementioned method steps until the direction vector and/or the velocity parameter are zero.