A system for cleaning a structure arranged in a body of water. The system includes: a vehicle operable to move through the water and clean the structure; a tether connectable between the vehicle and a fixed position; a deployment mechanism securable relative to the structure and configured to move the vehicle into, and out of, the water; and a processing unit configured to communicate with the vehicle and the deployment mechanism. The processing unit is configured to execute a repeating cleaning schedule to cause the deployment mechanism to operate to move the vehicle into the water, the vehicle to operate to clean at least a portion of the structure, and the mechanism to operate to remove the vehicle from the water.

A folding wave-energy-harvesting mechanism for an underwater vehicle includes an underwater-vehicle main body and a wave-energy-harvesting-device main body. The wave-energy-harvesting-device main body includes a hydrofoil assembly and a yaw assembly. The first state of the hydrofoil assembly is a folding state, and the second state is an unfolding state. The first state of the yaw assembly is the folding state, and the second state is the unfolding state. The wave-energy-harvesting-device main body further includes a driving assembly and an energy-storage assembly. The driving assembly is configured to switch the hydrofoil assembly and the yaw assembly in the first state and the second state to each other. The energy-storage assembly is configured to store the wave energy harvested by the hydrofoil assembly. When the hydrofoil assembly and the yaw assembly unfold, the hydrofoil assembly increases the efficient area for wave-energy harvesting.

A submersible system is provided having a submersible launch vessel that sends instructions from a mission controller to deploy one or more deployable systems for one or more underwater operations. The submersible launch vessel is submerged within a waterbody. A submersible power supply powers the submersible launch vessel and the one or more deployable systems. One or more communication devices is in communication with the mission controller, and the mission controller is located in one of a remote or a local location relative to the submersible launch vessel. The one or more deployable systems, via the one or more communication devices coupled to the submersible launch vessel, are remote controlled by the mission controller to execute the one or more underwater operations. Also, information associated with the one or more underwater operations including telemetry data is transmitted to the mission controller from the submersible launch vessel.

A submersible inspection drone used for inspection of liquid cooled electrical transformers can include a number of separate cameras for imaging the internal structure of the transformer. The submersible can be configured to communicate to a base station using a wireless transmitter and receiver. The cameras on the submersible can be fixed in place and can be either static or motion picture cameras. The submersible can include an input/output selector capable of switching between the camera images, either through commanded action of a user or through computer based switching. In one form the input/output selector is a multiplexer. The base station can be configured to display images from the cameras one at a time, or can include a number of separate viewing portals in which real time images are displayed. The base station can include a demultiplexer synchronized to the multiplexer of the submersible.

The current technique provides an unmanned vehicle that is capable of travelling in the air, on the ground and/or in the water. The driving force of the unmanned vehicle is provided by at least one propelling module that includes a motor, a shaft and a propeller. The propelling module is coupled to a chassis. The chassis includes one or more support elements that each couples to one or more aileron member. An aileron member is configured to tilt with or about the support element to change fluid flux about the aileron member and thus change a position of the propelling force.

Many different types of systems are utilized and tasks are performed in a marine environment. The present invention provides various configurations of castable devices that can be operated and/or controlled for such systems or tasks. One or more castable devices can be integrated with a transducer assembly, such as a phased array, that emits sonar beams and receives sonar returns from the underwater environment. Processing circuitry may receive the sonar returns, process the sonar returns, generate an image, and transmit the image to a display.

A flange for a pressure vessel includes a rim, a sealing seat, and an undercut fillet. The rim has an annular surface for abutting an annular end of a cylindrical wall of the pressure vessel. The sealing seat has a cylindrical surface for abutting an inner surface of the cylindrical wall of the pressure vessel nearby the annular end. The undercut fillet is disposed between the rim and the sealing seat. A concave surface of the undercut fillet extends the annular surface of the rim radially inward and then curves back outward to intersect the cylindrical surface of the sealing seat. The undercut fillet of the flange helps distribute stress produced from a pressure differential between the inside and outside of the pressure vessel.

An underwater vehicle is provided for cleaning, inspection and/or monitoring of underwater structures A. The vehicle includes at least one working equipment for cleaning, inspection and/or monitoring of underwater structures A. Several interconnected modules are also provided which can be oriented relative to each other. The modules are arranged one behind the other, and the underwater vehicle can be transitioned from an elongated movement configuration into a U-shaped, C-shaped, spiral and/or an annular working configuration and back.

A remote operated underwater vehicle, ROV, is provided, where the ROV includes at least one extendible pair of tubulars supported on the ROV, the one tubular of the pair being movable longitudinally relative to the other tubular of the pair, for extending a combined reach of the tubulars; and at least one pump connected to the tubulars, the pump being operable for pumping or suctioning fluid through the pair.

A submersible vehicle which includes a plurality of cameras can be used to collect visual images of an object of interest submerged in a liquid environment, such as in a tank (e.g. transformer tank). In one form the submersible vehicle is remotely operated such as an ROV or an autonomous vehicle. Image information from the submersible along with inertial measurements in some embodiments is used with a vision based modelling system to form a model of an internal object of interest in the tank. The vision based modelling system can include a number of processes to form the model such as but not limited to tracking, sparse and dense reconstruction, model generation, and rectification.