An offshore facility evacuation system that includes a submerged-floating pod (SFP) unit adapted to be positioned in a body of water adjacent an offshore facility, and a SFP station of the offshore facility adapted to launch the SFP unit from the facility. The SFP unit including a SFP controller, an SFP escape line to extend between the SFP station and the SFP unit to provide a path for moving persons from the SFP station to the SFP unit while the SFP unit is floating in the body of water, a SFP landing base including an inflatable platform to provide a landing area for persons, a SFP depth control system to regulate submergence of the SFP unit, a SFP location control system to control a location of the SFP unit, and a SFP communication system to provide communication with the SFP unit, and personal evacuation devices (PEDs).

A propulsion rudder for use with a water vessel, preferably an unmanned surface water vessel. The propulsion rudder includes a rotating base, a rudder assembly, and a thrust assembly. In one embodiment, the rudder assembly may comprise two vertical mast rudders connected by an upper horizontal wing, with the thrust assembly mounted on the horizontal wing. In a second embodiment, the rudder assembly may comprise an annular airfoil with the thrust assembly mounted on a mast and positioned in the center of the annular airfoil. The thrust assembly may be a propeller, a turbine, a ramjet, or a rocket.

A watercraft comprises a vehicle payload bay; a sail connected to the payload bay for propelling the watercraft in a foiling mode; and three or more hydrofoils connected to the payload bay. The hydrofoils are configured to provide control of the roll, pitch, and yaw of the watercraft and to elevate the vehicle payload by above a water surface when the watercraft is in the foiling mode. The hydrofoils can also provide control of roll, pitch, yaw, and elevation of the watercraft during the transition from a prone mode to a foiling mode. A mechanical propulsive system can be used for propelling the watercraft at least during transition from the prone mode to the foiling mode. The watercraft may not include a hull such that during the transition from the prone mode to the foiling mode, pitch and roll control are not substantially provided through the actions of gravity and buoyancy.

The present application discloses an automatic water surface skimmer, belonging to the technical field of water surface cleaning. For the existing anti-collision structure, most of impact force is transmitted to a hull through an anti-collision wheel, resulting in that the anti-collision wheel and the hull are damaged, the anti-collision effect is poor, and the service life of the anti-collision wheel and the hull is influenced. Further, garbage collected by adopting the existing solution is easily scatteredly fallen from an opening, and the collection effect is not good. The body of the automatic water surface skimmer is provided with an accommodating cavity running through upper and lower portions, such that a storage member can be placed from the top to the bottom, and it is convenient for a user to disassemble and assemble the storage member. Further, by changing the existing design that the water surface garbage enters from the opening in the front end of the storage member to the design that the garbage enters from the opening in the upper end of the storage member, the collected garbage can be effectively prevented from being scatteredly fallen from the opening in the front end, and the collection effect is good. In addition, the present application includes an anti-collision structure with at least two anti-collision wheels, such that the impact force can be effectively decomposed, the anti-collision effect is good, and the service life of the anti-collision wheels and the body can be effectively prolonged.

The invention generally relates to the measurement and predictions of conditions and contaminants; chemical, particulate and gaseous in and around water impoundments. More specifically, the invention relates to the use of an autonomous watercraft to analyze the chemical and physical properties of a body of water, such as a pond holding water used in a hydraulic fracturing operation.

Described herein are systems, methods, and devices for detecting harmful algae blooms. An example system includes autonomous watercraft; and a computing device operably connected to the autonomous watercraft over a network, the computing device including a processor and a memory having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that cause the processor to: surveil a body of water for an algae growth; receive a local condition at the body of water; predict a spread of the algae growth in the body of water based on the local condition; determine a deployment strategy for the autonomous watercraft based on the spread of the algae growth; and transmit one or more control signals to the plurality of autonomous watercraft based on the deployment strategy, where the autonomous watercraft are configured to collect and analyze a plurality of water samples to determine whether the algae growth is a harmful algae bloom.

An autonomous vessel and method for transporting a cargo from an origin to a destination utilizing water currents, a satellite location system, and a satellite communication system includes a hull for navigating a body of water. A communication module is adapted for wireless communication with local contacts and the satellite communication system. A propulsion module is adapted to propel the hull through the body of water and preferably includes one or more relatively low-power electric motors. A navigation module is adapted to steer the hull towards a next waypoint. The navigation module preferably includes a rudder control system and is connected with a location module that is itself adapted for communication with the satellite location system to find a current location of the hull on the body of water. A controller is adapted for controlling the modules, sending information, and for receiving commands and information.

An autonomous lifebuoy includes a body, an electric power supply, a propelling module and a control unit configured to control the autonomous lifebuoy so as to automatically guide the autonomous lifebuoy towards a person overboard in water, during a man overboard (MOB) situation. The control unit includes at least one communication module, a non-volatile memory, a graphics processing unit (GPU) configured to perform an image comparison and a microcomputer configured to make calculations, based on at least the image comparison performed by the graphics processing unit (GPU), and issue commands to at least the propelling module to propel the autonomous lifebuoy towards the person overboard in the water during the man overboard (MOB) situation.

Disclosed is an unmanned robot for water quality management. An unmanned robot for water quality management according to the present disclosure includes a traveling unit provided with a pair of caterpillar treads mounted on both side surfaces of a body and including floating bodies having their own buoyancy, a drive motor that drives the traveling unit, a water quality measurement sensor that measures water quality of a water surface on which the unmanned robot for water quality management is operated, and a processor that controls the traveling unit so that the unmanned robot travels on the water surface to collect water quality data measured by the water quality measurement sensor.

A method for situation awareness is provided. The method comprises: preparing a neural network trained by a learning set, wherein the learning set includes a plurality of maritime images and maritime information including object type information which includes a first type index for a vessel, a second type index for a water surface and a third type index for a ground surface, and distance level information which includes a first level index indicating that a distance is undefined, a second level index indicating a first distance range and a third level index indicating a second distance range greater than the first distance range; obtaining a target maritime image generated from a camera; and determining a distance of a target vessel based on the distance level index of the maritime information being outputted from the neural network which receives the target maritime image and having the first type index.