Locating devices, systems, and methods using frequency suites for utility detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10690795-B2
Application number	US-201615247503-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 25, 2016
Priority date	Aug 25, 2015
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

This disclosure is directed to utility locating systems, devices, and methods using frequency suites of simultaneously processed signals emitted from buried utilities to locate the buried utilities or other hidden or buried conductors.

First claim

We claim:

1. A buried utility locator, comprising:
an antenna array for receiving magnetic field signals from a buried utility in two or more orthogonal directions, the antenna array having a bandwidth including a plurality of predefined signal frequencies in a predefined first frequency suite;
a receiver operatively coupled to the antenna array for generating a receiver output signal including amplitude and/or phase information of first two or more signal components in two or more simultaneously received signals of the first frequency suite;
a processing element operatively coupled to the receiver for receiving the receiver output signal and generating a first set of data associated with the two or more signal components of the first frequency suite;
a non-transitory memory for storing the first set of data; and
a display to render a visual output corresponding to the determined first set of data.

2. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the first frequency suite comprises a passive frequency suite including signal components at two or more passive frequencies, and the first set of data is based on the two or more passive frequency signal components.

3. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the first frequency suite comprises an active frequency suite including signal components at two or more active frequencies, and the first set of data is based on the two or more active frequency signal components.

4. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the first frequency suite comprises a signal component at a passive frequency and a signal component at an active frequency, and the first set of data is based on the passive frequency signal component and the active frequency signal component.

5. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the antenna array has a bandwidth including a second plurality of frequencies in a second frequency suite, the receiver generates the output signal to include second two or more signal components in two or more frequencies in the second frequency suite, the processing element generates a second set of data associated with the second two or more signal components, and the second set of data is stored in the non-transitory memory.

6. The locator of claim 5 , wherein the first frequency suite comprises an active frequency suite including signal components at two or more active frequencies, and the first set of data is based on the two or more active frequency signal components.

7. The locator of claim 6 , wherein the first frequency suite comprises an active frequency suite including signal components at two or more active frequencies, and the first set of data is based on the two or more active frequency signal components.

8. The locator of claim 6 , wherein the second frequency suite comprises a passive frequency suite including signal components at two or more passive frequencies, and the second set of data is based on the two or more passive frequency signal components.

9. The locator of claim 5 , wherein the first frequency suite comprises a signal component at a passive frequency and a signal component at an active frequency, and the first set of data is based on the passive frequency signal component and the active frequency signal component.

10. The locator of claim 9 , wherein the second frequency suite comprises a signal component at a passive frequency and a signal component at an active frequency, and the second set of data is based on the passive frequency signal component and the active frequency signal component.

11. The locator of claim 1 , wherein information associated with the buried utility based on the two or more signal components of the first frequency suite is rendered on the display.

12. The locator of claim 1 , further comprising a module for generating positional information of the locator, wherein the positional information of the locator is associated with the two or more signal components and stored in the non-transitory memory.

13. The locator of claim 12 , wherein the module for generating positional information is a GPS receiver module and the positional information is latitude and longitude information.

14. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the generated data associated with the two or more signal components of the first frequency suite comprises separate depth information of the buried utility determined based on ones of the two or more signal components.

15. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the generated data associated with the two or more signal components of the first frequency suite comprises separate positional information of the buried utility relative to the locator determined based on ones of the two or more signal components.

16. The locator of claim 5 , wherein the generated data associated with the first two or more signal components and the second two or more signal components comprises separate depth information of the buried utility determined based on ones of the first two or more signal components and ones of the second two or more signal components.

17. The locator of claim 5 , wherein the generated data associated with the first two or more signal components and the second two or more signal components comprises separate position information of the buried utility determined based on ones of the first two or more signal components and ones of the second two or more signal components.

18. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the generating data associated with the two or more signals of the plurality of frequencies includes generating the data using a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) on the receiver output signal to extract amplitude and/or phase information from ones of the signals of the plurality of frequencies.

19. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of frequencies of the first frequency suite comprise passive signals based on a fundamental and/or harmonics of a power line frequency.

20. The locator of claim 19 , wherein the power line frequency is 50 Hz or 60 Hz.

21. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of frequencies of the first frequency suite comprise active signals based on a fundamental and/or harmonics of a utility transmitter output signal directly or inductively coupled to the buried utility.

22. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the first set of data associated with the two or more signal components is associated with a first utility of the one or more buried utilities, and the first set of data is presented on the display as a single linear element corresponding to the first utility.

23. The locator of claim 22 , wherein data from the first set of data is averaged to generate the single linear element on the display.

24. The locator of claim 23 , wherein the display includes a rendered map or image of the locate area and the two or more linear elements are superimposed on the map.

25. The locator of claim 1 , wherein the first set of data associated with the two or more signal components is associated with a first utility of the one or more buried utilities, and the first set of data is presented on the display as two or more separate linear elements corresponding to a representation of the utility based on simultaneously received and processed data corresponding to the two or more signal components.

26. The locator of claim 25 , wherein the display includes a rendered map or image of the locate area and the two or more linear elements are superimposed on the map.

27. The locator of claim 5 , wherein the first

Assignees

• Olsson Mark S
• Bench Stephanie M
• Martin Michael J
• Merewether Ray
• Wisecaver Paul
• Rutledge Austin
• Seescan Inc

Inventors

• Olsson Mark S
• Bench Stephanie M
• Martin Michael J
• Merewether Ray
• Wisecaver Paul
• Rutledge Austin

Classifications

• G01V3/081 Primary

  the magnetic field is produced by the objects or geological structures (characterised by the method of magnetic field measurement G01R33/00) · CPC title

• G01V3/15 Primary

  specially adapted for use during transport, e.g. by a person, vehicle or boat · CPC title

• G01V3/38

  Processing data, e.g. for analysis, for interpretation, for correction · CPC title

• G01B7/26

  for measuring depth · CPC title