Intelligent/autonomous thermocline mapping and monitoring for marine and freshwater applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10120103-B2
Application number	US-201514984882-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2015
Priority date	Dec 30, 2015
Publication date	Nov 6, 2018
Grant date	Nov 6, 2018

Abstract

A system for mapping a thermocline in a body of fluid includes a thermocline detection and monitoring module, a persistent data storage module; and a plurality of distributed sensors, including intelligent sensors, connected with the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module and the persistent data storage module by one or more control-level programming and communication methods. The thennocline detection and monitoring module can monitor the thermocline at sampling intervals to collect and fuse measurement data from the plurality of sensors to capture thermocline changes as events, correlate measurement data and events, store measurement data in the persistent data storage module along with previously acquired measurement data for comparison and tracking, characterize the thermocline as a function of spatial location, depth, and time, create and maintain reports that describe the thermocline characteristics, status, trends, and provide multimodal notifications of events to different users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for mapping a thermocline in a body of fluid, comprising:
at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module (TDMM);
a persistent data storage module; and
a plurality of distributed sensors, including intelligent sensors, connected with the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module and the persistent data storage module by one or more control-level programming and communication methods,
wherein the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module
monitors the thermocline by collecting measurement data from the plurality of sensors at sampling intervals,
fuses measurement data to capture thermocline changes as events,
correlates measurement data and events,
stores measurement data in the persistent data storage module along with previously acquired measurement data for comparison and tracking,
characterizes the thermocline as a function of spatial location, depth, and time,
creates and maintains reports that describe the thermocline characteristics, status, trends, and
provides multimodal notifications of events to different users.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein sampling intervals for monitoring the thermocline are autonomously adjusted based on knowledge-based and/or feedback approaches related to changes in thermocline characteristics observed from measurement data, triggered by actual or environmental factors/events or by predictive models or external data.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module provides trend and predictive analyses of thermocline changes, to monitor predictive models to measure natural physical drivers to thermocline changes, perform dynamic filtering to compensate for environmental parameter changes, and to use machine learning techniques to continuously improve measurement processes.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein measurement data includes weather conditions, current information, chemical data, and acoustic data.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors includes conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors, acoustic Doppler current profilers, pinger/depth sounders, sonobuoys, syndicated sources, and multiple heterogeneous data feeds that are supported in real time or asynchronously.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more communications methods include wired, optical fiber, and wireless methods.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the plurality of sensors incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to determine location.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an initialization module that initializes parameters, including sensor parameters, geospatial information, physical characteristics, and data feed characteristics.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a preprocessing module that examines the measurement data streams for quality to identify data gaps and range inconsistencies.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a communications module that handles all TDMM communications.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor interface and control module that provides embedded functionality that controls the plurality of sensors.

12. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a power management module that provides a constrained power envelope to optimize measurements, analytics, controls, and communications.

13. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an event handling/alarm services module that sends alerts, classifies events, sets alarm options and priorities, and tags sensor datasets for uncertain data quality.

14. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an asset management and maintenance management module that provides interfaces to manage a physical platform that hosts the TDMM.

15. A system for mapping a thermocline in a body of fluid, comprising:
at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module (TDMM) that
monitors the thermocline by collecting measurement date from the plurality of sensors at sampling intervals,
fuses measurement data to capture thermocline changes as events,
correlates measurement data and events,
stores measurement data in the persistent data storage module along with previously acquired measurement data for comparison and tracking,
characterizes the thermocline as a function of spatial location, depth, and time,
creates and maintains reports that describe the thermocline characteristics, status, trends,
provides multimodal notifications of events to different users,
provides trend and predictive analyses of thermocline changes to monitor predictive models to measure natural physical drivers to thermocline changes, perform dynamic filtering to compensate for environmental parameter changes, and to use machine learning techniques to continuously improve measurement processes.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein sampling intervals for monitoring the thermocline are autonomously adjusted based on knowledge-based and/or feedback approaches related to changes in thermocline characteristics observed from measurement data, triggered by actual or environmental factors/events or by predictive models or external data.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein measurement data includes weather conditions, current information, chemical data, and acoustic data.

18. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:
a persistent data storage module,
wherein the plurality of distributed sensors include intelligent sensors and are connected with the at least one thermocline detection and monitoring module and the persistent data storage module by one or more control-level programming and communication methods,
wherein the plurality of sensors includes conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors, acoustic Doppler current profilers, pinger/depth sounders, sonobuoys, syndicated sources, and multiple heterogeneous data feeds that are supported in real time or asynchronously.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more communications methods include wired, optical fiber, and wireless methods.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein at least some of the plurality of sensors incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to determine location.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dow Eli M
• Kelly Michael
• Kolar Harry R
• Passow Michael L

Classifications

• G01V9/005 Primary

  by thermal methods, e.g. after generation of heat by chemical reactions · CPC title

• G01N33/18

  Water · CPC title

• G01K13/00

  Thermometers specially adapted for specific purposes · CPC title