Launch and Recovery Method for Unwired Auvs and Uuvs

The present disclosure relates generally to offshore industry and to the field of Launch and Recovery Systems (LARS) located on an uncontrollably moving surface used to launch and recover objects from a separate surface that also move uncontrollably. The present invention generally relates to UUVs, and AUVs, and automatic, safe and autonomous deployment and recovery of unwired UUVs and AUVs. The present disclosure discloses a method of recovering a marine vehicle floating on a choppy water surface, a method of launching a marine vehicle onto a choppy water surface, and a launch and recovery system for launching and recovering a marine vehicle onto and from a choppy water surface. The present disclosure also relates to a computer program for carrying out the method of the present disclosure.

In many situations, especially in offshore industry, a Launch and Recovery System (LARS) located on an uncontrollably moving surface must be used to launch and recover objects from a separate surface that also moves uncontrollably. Such situations are very difficult and often risky for manual operations and therefore must be automated. Also, such manual operations are limited to calm sea conditions (wave height below one meter) as otherwise damage to equipment or loss of a human life can occur.

The usage of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV-s) is growing rapidly, but there is a major bottleneck. A launch and recovery of AUV-s today is a dangerous process that needs crew members to go down on the water. In rough sea conditions it's almost impossible, because a mistake could lead to the damage of expensive equipment or danger to human life.

Today, there are existing some automated launch and recovery systems, but only for certain AUV models and for operating deep under water. AI-Lars can eliminate costly and fatal incidents with the launch and recovery of autonomous underwater vehicles. Currently, following solutions are used in Launch and Recovery System (LARS). Subsea cage: A cage is lowered from the surface vessel and the AUV is guided into the cage using hydroacoustic positioning. This requires a special-purpose vessel with a moonpool, making retrofitting impossible in most cases. Such solutions have a limited application range, and they require deeper integration with vessel subsea positioning systems. Stern entry system: Stern entry systems require manually hooking the AUV to a towline, posing risks to operators and to the AUV. They also require special-purpose vessels, making retrofitting impossible. 2 davit arm system: The crane-like systems require manually hooking the AUV to the lifting device, which poses risks to operators, as well as to the AUV, especially in rough seas. Such systems have limited maneuverability and they are heavy. Automated systems: Some AUV manufacturers are developing automated systems tailored to specific AUV (e.g., HUGIN by Kongsberg), but they are limited in scalability.

In many situations, especially in offshore industry, a Launch and Recovery System (LARS) located on an uncontrollably moving surface must be used to launch and recover objects from a separate surface that also moves uncontrollably. Such situations are very difficult and often risky for manual operations and therefore must be automated. Also, such manual operations are limited to calm sea conditions (wave height below one meter) as otherwise damage to equipment or loss of a human life can occur.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) offer nearly endless possibilities in offshore industry, where they can be used for pipeline and platform inspections, bathymetric surveys, deepwater drilling, etc. The potential has made AUVs the fastest-growing segment of the marine shipping market. However, the use of AUVs is limited to calm sea conditions (wave heigh below 1 meter) because launch and recovery of AUVs with current technologies is too risky in rough sea conditions. This severely limits the uptake and benefits of AUVs.

Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with launch and recovery systems known in the prior art.

During the early 1950s, Alan Turing (a young British mathematician) was one of the first researchers to explore the mathematical possibility of artificial intelligence. Turing suggested that humans use available information as well as reason in order to solve problems and make decisions and wondered why computers could not do the same. Research was slow. During this time, computers lacked a key prerequisite for intelligence: they couldn't store commands-they could only execute them. In addition, the cost of leasing a computer to conduct such research cost ˜$200,000 a month and only prestigious universities and big technology companies could afford them. Five years later, a logic program was designed to mimic the problem-solving skills of humans and was funded by the RAND Corporation. This program is considered by many to be the first artificial intelligence program and was presented at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. In the 1970s computers could store more information and became faster, cheaper, and more accessible. Machine learning algorithms also improved and people got better at knowing which algorithm to apply to specific problems. However, weaknesses continued. The biggest problem was the lack of computational power to do anything substantial: computers simply couldn't store enough information or process it fast enough. In order to communicate, for example, one needs to know the meanings of many words and understand them in many combinations and the computing power was not ready.

In the 1980's, interest in AI was reignited by two sources: an expansion of the algorithmic toolkit, and a boost in private funding. During these years, researchers popularized ‘deep learning’ techniques which allowed computers to learn using experience data. ‘Expert systems which mimicked the decision-making process of a human expert also emerged.

This program would ask an expert in a field how to respond in a given situation, and once this was learned for virtually every situation, non-experts could receive advice from that program. Expert systems were widely used in industries. In 1997, reigning world chess champion and grand master Gary Kasparov was defeated by IBM's Deep Blue, a chess playing computer program. This highly publicized match was the first time a reigning world chess champion loss to a computer and served as a huge step towards an artificially intelligent decision-making program. In the same year, speech recognition software, developed by Dragon Systems, was implemented on Windows computers. This was another great step forward in the direction of the spoken language interpretation endeavor. Kismet, a robot developed by Cynthia Breazeal was an AI system that recognized and displayed human emotions.

2015 was considered to be a landmark year for artificial intelligence as the number of software projects as ‘AI Google’ and ‘neural networks’ became available. These increases in affordable neural networks were due to a rise in cloud computing infrastructure and to an increase in research tools and datasets. Other examples of popular AI include Microsoft's development of a Skype system that automatically translates from one language to another and Facebook's system that can describe images to blind people. Around 2016, China greatly accelerated its government funding (given its large supply of data and its rapidly increasing research output) some observers believe it may be on track to becoming an ‘AI superpower.’ While AI has been gaining popularity in many industrialized nations, little AI has been leveraged for use in deploying and recovering UUVs and AUVs.

The aim of the present disclosure is to provide a method and system for launching and recovering a marine vehicle onto and from a choppy water surface to ensure a safe launch and recovery of the marine vehicle. The aim of the disclosure is achieved by a method, system and computer program as defined in the appended independent claims to which reference is made to. Advantageous features are set out in the appended dependent claims.

Embodiments of the present disclosure thus enable to overcome the problems encountered in the prior art.

Additional aspects, advantages, features and objects of the present disclosure will be made apparent from the drawings and the detailed description of the illustrative embodiments construed in conjunction with the appended claims that follow.

Other aspects of the present invention shall be more readily understood when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the following detailed description, neither of which should be considered limiting.

The following detailed description illustrates embodiments of the present disclosure and ways in which they can be implemented.

In one aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method of recovering a marine vehicle floating on a choppy water surface, the method comprising: determining a zero location coordinates of the marine vehicle floating on the choppy water surface and continuously monitoring a change of location coordinates of the marine vehicle in relation to the determined zero location in real time, moving a gripper to a predetermined distance from the marine vehicle, controlling a position of the gripper at the predetermined distance by continuously changing the position of the gripper according to the monitored change of the location coordinates of the marine vehicle, determining an angle of a central axis of the marine vehicle in the horizontal plane during the change in the location coordinates of the marine vehicle, calculating a moment of grabbing the marine vehicle; recovering the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface at the calculated moment with the gripper.

In one aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method of launching a marine vehicle onto a choppy water surface, the method comprising: continuously monitoring a change of the choppy water surface in real time, moving a gripper holding the marine vehicle to a predetermined distance from the choppy water surface, controlling a position of the gripper at the predetermined distance by continuously changing the position of the gripper according to the change of the choppy water surface, determining a launching point of time, when a launching wave height is achieved and releasing the marine vehicle at the determined launching point of time from the gripper onto the choppy water surface.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a launch and recovery system for launching and recovering a marine vehicle onto and from a choppy water surface, the launch and recovery system comprising a gripper configured to launch and recover the marine vehicle, one or more sensors connected to the gripper, the one or more sensors being operable to determine a zero location coordinates of the marine vehicle floating on the choppy water surface and continuously monitor a change of location coordinates of the marine vehicle in relation to the determined zero location in real time; determine an angle of a central axis of the marine vehicle in the horizontal plane during the change in the location coordinates of the marine vehicle; or continuously monitor a change of the choppy water in real time; a controller operable to control a movement of the gripper to a predetermined distance from the marine vehicle or the choppy water surface; control a position of the gripper according to the marine vehicle by continuously changing the position of the gripper based on the change of the location coordinates of the marine vehicle; determine an angle of a central axis of the marine vehicle in the horizontal plane during the change in the location coordinates of the marine vehicle, calculate a moment of grabbing the marine vehicle; or control a position of the gripper at the predetermined distance by continuously changing the position of the gripper according to the change of the choppy water surface, determine a launching point of time, when a launching wave height is achieved.

In an aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the methods of the present disclosure.

In many situations, especially in offshore industry, a Launch and Recovery System (LARS) located on an uncontrollably moving surface must be used to launch and recover objects from a separate surface that also moves uncontrollably. Such situations are very difficult and often risky for manual operations and therefore must be automated. Also, such manual operations are limited to calm sea conditions (wave height below one meter) as otherwise damage to equipment or loss of a human life can occur. The embodiments of the present disclosure automate the whole process and therefore eliminate the risks. It can be used in rough sea conditions (wave height up to four meters) or any other situation where involved surfaces can be moving uncontrollably. The versatility of the embodiments of the present disclosure enables it to also be used in stationary condition or any combination or movements. The launchable or retrievable object does not require any sensors installed on itself.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and/or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) offer nearly endless possibilities in offshore industry, where they can be used for pipeline and platform inspections, bathymetric surveys, deepwater drilling, etc. The potential has made AUVs and UUVs the fastest-growing segment of the marine shipping market. However, the use of AUVs and UUVs is limited to calm sea conditions (wave heigh below 1 meter) because launch and recovery of AUVs and UUVs with current technologies is too risky in rough sea conditions. This severely limits the uptake and benefits of AUVs and UUVs.

The embodiments of the present disclosure automates the whole process and, thereby, eliminates the risks to human operators, AUVs and UUVs, and surface vessels even in rough sea conditions (wave height abovemeters). The embodiments of the present disclosure will remove the barriers to the uptake of AUVs and UUVs to unlock the potential the technology has in the marine sector.

The methods and device disclosed within the present disclosure and described provides a solution to the shortcomings in the prior art through the disclosure of a launch and recovery method for unwired UUVs and AUVs. An object of the invention is to allow launches and recoveries to be performed autonomously. For example, as a ship approaches a UUV (or UUV approaches a ship), it detects its exact coordinates, moves a crane into position, connects to the UUV, and hoists it on board safely.

Another object of the invention is to use combination of GPS, digital imagery and position sensors to locate and pinpoint a UUVs' and AUVs' exact position for retrieval. For example, a vessel captures a AUV's or UUVs GPS transmission as it waits on the surface. As the ship approaches, it activates digital cameras that inform the system of its exact position in the water so that retrieval can be initiated.

Another object of the invention is to allow a crane to sync its grappling device, for example a gripper, movements to those of the UUV or AUV to allow retrieval to be performed smoothly. The digital imaging system and position sensors capture the payload's movements and transmits the pattern to the crane's positioning system that allows for such syncing.

Another object of the invention is to leverage AI to learn the various UUV and AUV configurations so that they can be retrieved and deployed by a crane. The AI also learns sea conditions that allow such conditions to be factored into retrieval and deployment operations to minimize sway of the payloads in relation to a vessel's own movements for enhanced safety.

The present disclosure comprises real-time detection of uncontrolledly moving objects, marine vehicles in uncontrolled environment, like sea surface, especially choppy water surface, and calculating, using AI-component the real-time coordinates of those objects, marine vehicles. At the same time, using those coordinates to operate a Launch and Recovery System (LARS), located on one of uncontrolledly moving object, to approach second uncontrolledly moving object, the second uncontrolledly moving object being the marine vehicle, with precision, given by control system or controller according to degree of uncertainty of environment (sea state). As result, using the same calculation process based on AI-component, LARS catches second uncontrolledly moving object without any harmful collision.

A “marine vehicle” in the present disclosure can be unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), autonomous underwater vehicle (AUVs), remotely operated vehicle (ROVs), small boats, lifeboats or any other marine vehicle, which needs to be launched and recovered to a choppy water surface by a launch and recovery system (LARS). The “launch and recovery system (LARS)” in the context of the present disclosure is a system that is commonly used in the deployment and retrieval of various types of vessels, such as boats, submarines, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) from water, more specifically offshore waters. It may involve features like davits, cranes, winches, ramps, gripper/grippers to lower the vessels into the water or lift them back onto the main ship or platform. LARS is placed on a surface that can be moving uncontrollably and is used to launch and recover objects to or from another moving surface that can be moving uncontrollably, for example a body of water. LARS utilizes a gripper or a robotic gripper that comprises at least one visual sensor and at least one distance sensor. Lights and UV lights can be used if the conditions require them. A “choppy water surface” is a water surface while wind-blowing which turns water rippling with waves and rough. The choppy water surface may have wave height from one meter up to four meters and/or any other situation where involved water surfaces are moving uncontrollably. The choppy water surface may have wave height from one, two, three up to three, four meters. The higher the way, the more difficult it is to control the launch and recovery system for AUVs or UUVs.

To start recovering a marine vehicle floating on a choppy water surface, the LARS moves to a working position where one or more sensors, especially a visual sensor, which may be selected from a Time-of-Flight (ToF) cameras, 3D cameras a RGB cameras, overseeing a pick-up zone, where the marine vehicle is located. The pick-up zone is an area, where the marine vehicle is detected by the one or more sensors, especially visual sensors, for example a camera. The visual sensors may be selected from cameras, for example stereo camera, RGB camera, digital camera, thermal cameras, infrared sensors, lidars, radars, sonars, Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors, laser sensors. The LARS comprises a gripper, which is connected to the one or more sensors. The gripper in the context of the present disclosure is an apparatus, which can hold and grasp the marine vehicle securely. The gripper may be selected from mechanical grippers, vacuum grippers, magnetic grippers, adaptive grippers, robotic grippers. The gripper is integrated into automated LARS system using one or more sensors. The gripper may also be connected to actuators and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). a pair of electro-hydraulically driven grippers. The gripper may also be selected from a pair of fully electrically driven grippers, two pairs of electro-hydraulically driven grippers, two pairs of fully electrically driven grippers. The gripper may further comprise a plurality of rubber pads combined with rubberized plastic wheels mounted on the gripper and damping elements.

In an embodiment, for the visual sensors to see better, data from motion reference unit (MRU) placed on a base of a gripper is used for active heave compensation (AHC) of the gripper and therefore the visual sensors are stable despite the movement of the surface the LARS is located on. In an embodiment, the LARS may be located on a vessel or a ship. The vessel may be selected from any kind of AUV retrieving apparatus, vessels, platforms on shore apparatus, unmanned vessels.

The one or more sensors, which mat comprise a visual sensor(s), sends live images to a controller which comprises a software program and AI. Based on a training data of the AI, the system recognizes markers on the marine vehicle or the marine vehicle itself. The AI gets an information from RGB pictures and 3D point cloud from TOF sensors and uses it to identify the marine vehicle and calculates what movements must be executed to retrieve the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface it is on. Using a 3D point cloud from distance sensor (for example ToF sensor) the distance from the gripper to the markers or the object is calculated.

The gripper moves to a predetermined distance, which is predefined in the system according to the conditions like speed and amplitude of the object's movement to avoid collision. With this step, the gripper is moved closer to reduce the travel distance and therefore time for grabbing the marine vehicle at a moment of grabbing. After moving the gripper to the predetermined distance, the AHC turns off and the movement of the gripper will be controlled by visual odometry and telemetry. The marine vehicle, which will be retrieved or recovered from the choppy water surface, is considered as a zero point of the coordinate system the gripper moves in and the data about its location is updated in real time. A position of the marine vehicle's axis and a centre of mass is calculated based on the visual images and distance measurements received from one or more sensors. The calculated position of the marine vehicle is compared to the data of suitable positions for grabbing the object. Based on the training data, AI can predict where the object will be in a predefined time and starts moving the gripper into a suitable position for grabbing the object, so it is able to grab the object at the best moment avoiding any damage to the LARS or the marine vehicle. When the object is located safely it the gripper then the LARS raises it from the surface and moves it to a predefined place. Optionally, the gathered data can be saved to cloud-based network and used for further training of the AI. The network can enable access to information of parameters, ongoing processes, and remote control of the LARS system for the user if needed.

In a similar way to the recovery process, one or more sensors and optionally AI is used to get information how the choppy water surface the marine vehicle must be launched onto is moving. The gripper with the marine vehicle is moved to a predetermined distance from the choppy water surface and a movement of the choppy water surface is calculated, optionally by AI, related to the marine vehicle. Based on the calculations or optionally using data of predictions, the marine vehicle is placed onto the choppy water surface when it is safe to do so, and collision is avoided.

The present disclosure comprises determining a zero location coordinates of the marine vehicle floating on the choppy water surface and continuously monitoring a change of location coordinates of the marine vehicle in relation to the determined zero location in real time. The marine vehicle is determined from a distance by one or more sensors and the zero location coordinates are assigned to the marine vehicle. As the marine vehicle is floating on the water, the coordinates are continuously changing. Therefore, the change of location coordinates is continuously determined in real time. This will ensure to determine, how the marine vehicle is floating on the choppy water surface by changing the location coordinates in height, width, and length. Also, a speed and amplitude of the marine vehicle are changing on the choppy water surface. The change is caused by the choppy water surface, which has irregular and rough wave patterns. It typically occurs due to the presence of strong winds or conflicting currents that create turbulence on the surface. The waves in choppy water are characterized by their short wavelength and relatively steep height compared to calm or smooth water surfaces. Therefore, it is important to determine, how the marine vehicle is moving on the choppy water surface.

The present disclosure comprises moving a gripper to a predetermined distance from the marine vehicle. The predetermined distance is a safe distance predetermined in the system according to the conditions like speed and amplitude of the object's movement to avoid collision. The predetermined distance is determined based on the change of location coordinates of the marine vehicle in relation to the determined zero location. Dependent on the conditions, the predetermined distance may be 10 cm up to 300 cm. The predetermined distance may be selected from 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 90, 110, 130, 150, 180, 200 cm up to 200, 220, 240, 260, 280, 300 cm. The gripper must be moved to the predetermined distance to make minimum efforts for recovering the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface. If the predetermined distance would be more than 300 cm, extra steps would be necessary before recovering the marine vehicle with the gripper. If the distance would be less than 10 cm, then there is a high risk of collision between the gripper and the marine vehicle, which would result in damaging both or either one from the gripper or the marine vehicle.

The present disclosure further comprises controlling a position of the gripper at the predetermined distance by continuously changing the position of the gripper according to the monitored change of the location coordinates of the marine vehicle. When the gripper is moved to the predetermined distance, the gripper starts to float according to floating of the marine vehicle. This means, that position coordinates of the gripper will change equally to the change of location coordinates of the marine vehicle, but the gripper is still kept at the predetermined distance. If the marine vehicle changes its location in height, length or width, the gripper will change its coordinates accordingly.

The present disclosure further comprises determining an angle of a central axis of the marine vehicle in the horizontal plane during the change in the location coordinates of the marine vehicle. Determining the angle of the central axis of the marine vehicle enables to determine a position of the marine vehicle, when the angle of the central axis is nearly parallel to the horizontal plane, which is necessary to achieve for recovering the marine vehicle safely from the choppy water surface. For a safe recovery, the central axis angle may deviate from the horizontal plane from 0° up to 20° degrees, preferably from 0° up to 10° degrees and more preferably from 0° up to 5° degrees. In ideal conditions, the angle of the central axis of the marine vehicle is near parallel, when the marine vehicle is floating at the highest point of the wave crest. This is the preferable time for recovering the marine vehicle from the choppy water. The wave crest will support the recovering at that point.

The present disclosure comprises calculating a moment of grabbing the marine vehicle. As already explained previously, the marine vehicle would be grabbed from the choppy water surface, when the central axis of the marine vehicle is nearly parallel to the horizontal plane. Alternatively, and additionally, the marine vehicle is grabbed, when it is floating on the highest wave crest. Therefore, it is important to calculate beforehand, when is the moment of grabbing the marine vehicle to ensure safe recovering from the choppy water surface.

The present disclosure comprises recovering the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface at the calculated moment with the gripper. As already explained previously, when the conditions are achieved, it is safest to grab and recover the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface.

The steps of the present disclosure ensure, that an automated and safe launch and recovery system for recovering the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface is provided. Furthermore, no human intervention is necessary with the method of the present disclosure. The method enables fully automatic and safe launch and recovery system for recovering the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface.

In an embodiment, the present disclosure comprises calculating the moment of grabbing, which comprises calculating a possible grabbing position and comparing the calculated possible grabbing position with suitable positions for grabbing the marine vehicle. The possible grabbing position is a position of the marine vehicle on the choppy water surface, when the angle of the central axis of the marine vehicle is nearly parallel to the horizontal plane.

In an embodiment, the present disclosure comprises calculating the possible grabbing position of the marine vehicle comprises receiving images of the marine vehicle, calculating a distance from the gripper to the marine vehicle, calculating a position of the marine vehicle's axis in a horizontal plane and the centre of mass based on the visual images and distance measurements. In an embodiment, the marine vehicle may comprise markers, which will be visible on the received images of the marine vehicle. The markers enable better detection of the location coordinates of the marine vehicles. The marine vehicle may comprise one or more markers, preferably, at least two markers are necessary for determining the location for the marine vehicle by the one or more sensors. The centre of the mass will be calculated to determine correct location on the marine vehicle, where the gripper element will grab the marine vehicle. Without calculating the centre of the mass, the gripper element may grab the marine vehicle in undesired location, which may lead to uneven and unsafe recovering of the marine vehicle from the choppy water surface.

In an embodiment, the present disclosure comprises determining the predetermined distance comprises monitoring a change in the location coordinates of the marine vehicle.

In an embodiment, the predetermined distance is from 20 cm up to 100 cm.

In an embodiment, the method of the present disclosure further comprises moving the gripper from the predetermined distance towards the marine vehicle before the moment of grabbing the marine vehicle. The gripper needs to be ready for grabbing at the moment of grabbing, therefore, the gripper will start moving towards the marine vehicle before. If the gripper would start moving towards the marine vehicle only at the moment of grabbing, the marine vehicle may change its position and location during the movement of the gripper and the gripper would not be able to grab the marine vehicle at previously discussed moment of grabbing.

In an embodiment, the method of the present disclosure the method further comprises detecting the marine vehicle in a pick-up zone before determining the zero location coordinates of the marine vehicle. Before determining a zero location coordinates of the marine vehicle floating on the water, the marine vehicle will be detected in the pick-up zone, which is an area, where the marine vehicle is detected by the one or more sensors, especially visual sensors, for example a camera.

In an embodiment, the method of the present disclosure the method further comprises active heave compensating of the gripper on the water surface using a motion reference unit (MRU). For the one or more sensors to see and determine the marine vehicle floating on the choppy water surface better, data from motion reference unit (MRU) placed on the base of a crane, where the gripper is attached, is used for active heave compensation (AHC) of the gripper and therefore the one or more sensors are stable despite the movement of the surface the LARS is located on.

In an embodiment, the method of the present disclosure the method further comprises turning off the active heave compensating, when the gripper is at the predetermined distance from the marine vehicle. The active heave compensation is turned off to enable the gripper to move according to the marine vehicle floating on the choppy water surface. This means, that the gripper will also start floating in the same way, as the marine vehicle is floating on the choppy water surface. However, the predetermined distance is still maintained until the gripper starts to move into the grabbing position.

The present disclosure further describes a method of launching a marine vehicle onto a choppy water surface. Due to rough conditions of the choppy water surface, it is a challenge to launch the marine vehicle to a water in offshore. Herein, provided is a method, which enables automatically and safely without any human intervention to launch the marine vehicle into the choppy water surface. The method is also suitable for using water conditions, which are less choppy.