DESC:F O R M 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
The Patent Rule, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10 and rule 13)

“UNDERWATER SPOT CLEANING ARRANGEMNT FOR OBSERVATIONAL CLASS ROV’S”
By
Planys Technologies Private Limited
An Indian company
03 - A2, 3rd Floor, IITM Incubation cell, Madras Research Park,
Kanagam Road Tharamani, Chennai 600113

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to underwater cleaning arrangement and more particularly to underwater spot cleaning arrangement fitted to remotely operated vehicles (ROV’S) for cleaning the biofouling and other unwanted layers of oxides from the target region.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is essentially a tethered underwater robot that allows the vehicle's operator to remain in a comfortable environment while the ROV works underwater. The applications of submersible ROVs include observational tasks such as visual and/or sensory inspection of platforms, structures and pipelines, intervention tasks like construction and repair of inter-oceanic pipelines and structures as well as object location and recovery tasks including detection of underwater mines and so on.
For observational class ROVs, survey and inspection of underwater surfaces and structures form a major part of their applications but the surface of any underwater structure is mostly covered with biofouling, which is the accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae on wetted surfaces. This biofouling hinders the ROV and its sensor probes, from doing the inspection or survey task it has been employed for. For example, biofouling of underwater ship hulls significantly degrades the performance of the ship by increasing hydrodynamic drag, which reduces the ship's maximum speed and fuel efficiency. Consequently, operating costs for ships with greater fouling on their hulls are greater than for ships with less fouling on their hulls.
In early days for cleaning biofouling and conducting tests, sea divers are employed with heavy hand held bio-fouling cleaning tools. More often all the cleaning tools employ either one of these cleaning methodologies, cleaning using rotating brush, or cleaning with high pressure water jet, or cleaning using cavitational water jet. In this effort diver’s life was always under threat, as it’s not favourable for any human to work underwater at deep sea level for hours together. Further, conventional water jet and cavitational water jet based tools require a lot of electrical power for their pumps. For e.g., Limpieza Putotecnica’s cavitational water jet cleaning pistol requires a 25kW pump for producing the required jet of the water.
With the improvement in technology the ROV’S are most widely used for underwater biofouling cleaning. However, among the few spot cleaning payload tools available for ROV’S, most of the products are heavy, hydraulic based tools meant for work class ROV’S. The only electrical solutions available for observational class ROV’S are provided by SAAB Seaeye, but even they run on their proprietary protocols motor control systems and hence do not provide a plug-n-play solution for integration with other ROV’S, they work with only SAAB Seaeye’s ROV’S. SAAB also provides a water jet based cleaning tool, which like other water jet based tools, has a very high power requirement that is not available with most ROV’S.
Thus the present invention focus to address aforementioned drawbacks of the system faced during underwater biofouling cleaning.
OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION
These objectives are provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This objective are not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An important objective of the invention aims at providing a compact solution for the shortcomings of the above mentioned systems.
Another objective of the invention is to construct an underwater spot cleaning arrangement for observational class ROV’S.
Yet another objective of the invention is to provide plug-n-play hardware to integrate the ROV through a conventional connector.
Further objective of the current invention is to enable an underwater spot cleaning arrangement to be compatible with large number of electrical observational class ROVs.
These objectives are achieved by the system according to the invention, which is an underwater spot cleaning arrangement consists of a ROV, consisting of an actuation system, a damping system, and a processor. The actuation system having a pressure hull cylinder housing a motor, driving a cleaning means through a shaft assembly. The damping system allied to the actuation system through a guide rod absorbing vibration and guiding the cleaning means. And said processor integrated with the cleaning arrangement for controlling and running the motor at rated speed for cleaning away the biofouling and other unwanted layers of oxides from the target region.
Object of the present invention is not limited to the above mentioned problem. Other technical problems that are not mentioned will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to an embodiment which is illustrated in the drawing figures:
Figure 1 shows pictorial view of underwater spot cleaning arrangement for observational class ROV’s, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
Figure 2 shows the working flowchart of underwater spot cleaning arrangement, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
In the claims, all transitional phrases such as "comprising," "including," "carrying," "having," "containing," "involving," and the like are to be understood to be open- ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases "consisting of and "consisting essentially of," respectively, shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases.
To facilitate the understanding of this invention, a number of terms may be defined below. Terms defined herein have meanings as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the areas relevant to the present invention. Terms such as "a", "an", and "the" are not intended to refer to only a singular entity, but include the general class of which a specific example may be used for illustration. The terminology herein is used to describe specific embodiments of the invention, but their usage does not delimit the disclosed system or method, except as may be outlined in the claims.
With reference now to figure 1 where a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated, underwater spot cleaning arrangement 100 according to the invention consists of a ROV, consisting of an actuation system, a damping system, and a processor. The actuation system having a pressure hull cylinder 102 houses a motor 108 driving a cleaning means 120 through a shaft assembly. The pressure hull cylinder 102 having a flange 104 and an end plate 106 seals the pressure inside the cylinder. The end plate 106 has a hole through which the motor wires are passed for actuating motor. The pressure hull cylinder 102 serves as pressure and water-proof enclosure for housing a motor 108 on a motor mount plate 110 attached to the flange 104. The motor 108 actuates the cleaning means 120 wherein the shaft assembly having a motor shaft 112, a brush shaft 116 and a flexible coupler 114 to rotates the cleaning means 120 at desired RPM providing required torque for cleaning. The motor shaft 112 connects the motor 108 to the flexible coupler 114 through the shaft seal 118. The flexible coupler 114 transfers the torque from the motor shaft 112 to the brush shaft 116, while allowing for any angular or lateral misalignment. The brush shaft 116 couples the flexible coupler 114 to the cleaning means 120 hence transferring the torque to the cleaning means 120. The cleaning means 120 is mounted on the brush shaft 116 using washers and nuts to prevent any slipping between the brush shaft 116 and cleaning means 120. The cleaning means 120 is the most critical part of the arrangement 100 and is decisive in deciding the functionality of the arrangement 100. The cleaning means can be a brush of any kind using which, the arrangement 100 can be used for varied applications such as biofouling removal, surface polishing and removal of paint, oxides and other coatings. Further, free end of the cleaning means 120 is supported by a pair of support channels 122 which is attached to the pressure hull through clamps. In an embodiment L support channels 122 supports the brush shaft 116 through a thrust washer housing 124. A thrust washer in the thrust washer housing 124 takes the axial load of the cleaning means 120 while cleaning. The thrust washer can be a plastic washer allowing frictionless motion of the cleaning means 120. Along with the thrust washer, the same housing 124 also houses a bearing to support the end of the brush shaft 116.
The damping system according to the cleaning arrangement 100 is allied to the actuation system through a guide rod 126 absorbing vibration and guiding the cleaning means 120. The guide rod 126 encircled with a spring 130 at first end passes the pressure hull 102 through second end such that the guide rod 126 along with a pair of sliding bearings 128 dampens vibration. The motor brush arrangement on the guide rod 126 through the linear bearings 128 allows smooth linear motion over the rod. Thus the springs 130 protect the cleaning arrangement 100 by dampening out the impact forces arising when the ROV pushes the brush 120 to the surface. In an embodiment pair of parallel linear guide rods 126 along with the linear bearings 128 and springs 130 is used to ensure the system doesn’t twist and is constrained to move linear only.
A mounting plate 132 covers and protects the linear bearings 128, support channels 122 and the pressure hull cylinder 102 thorough the end plate 106. In a preferred embodiment the mounting plate 132 is a 3mm thick laser cut and bent aluminium plate. The cleaning arrangement 100 is mounted on the ROV through a rear mount 134 and a front mount 136 positioned on the ends of guide rod 126.
The processor (not shown in figure) is integrated with the cleaning arrangement 100 for controlling and running the motor 108 at rated speed. The cleaning arrangement further consists of a RPM sensor measuring speed of the motor and communicating with the processor for controlling and maintaining the speed of the motor by an electronic speed controller. The RPM sensor measures the speed of rotation of the motor 108 and hence the brush 120 and helps to control and maintain the RPM and/or torque regardless of the variations in load that occurs during the cleaning process. The underwater spot cleaning arrangement 100 further integrated with a plug-n-play hardware which assists in directly connecting the arrangement to the ROV through a conventional connector. It doesn’t require any additional support system or hull, for it to function.
Figure 2 shows working flowchart of underwater spot cleaning arrangement 100, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Accordingly, the motor 108 is actuated by electric power supply supplied through dedicated electronic speed controller (ESC). The cleaning means 120 may be a brush actuated by motor 108 preferably a brushless DC motor which is coupled to the cleaning means 120 via a flexible coupler 114 to allow for misalignment. The ESC has an additional component viz. RPM sensor for measuring RPM of the brush 120. The cleaning performance of the arrangement 100 is controlled by controlling and maintaining the RPM of the brush 120 by a processor. Meanwhile the shock absorber system absorbs the linear vibration and act as a linear motion guide for the cleaning arrangement 100.
The underwater spot cleaning arrangement is useful for removing biofouling from marine surfaces of ship hulls, structures, etc. Further arrangement assists in cleaning of target surface before the visual or sensory using sensor probes such as CP, UT, etc for corrosion or thickness measurement respectively. Furthermore the arrangement is efficient in polishing of a metallic surface underwater like propeller polishing.
Although but one preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated, it will be obvious to those skilled in this art that other embodiments may be readily designed within the scope and teachings thereof.

I/we claim,
1. A cleaning arrangement, consisting of: an actuation system, a damping system, and a processor wherein,
the actuation system having a pressure hull cylinder housing a motor driving a cleaning means through a shaft assembly;
the damping system allied to the actuation system through a guide rod absorbing vibration and guiding the cleaning means; and
the processor integrated with the cleaning arrangement for controlling and running the motor at rated speed for cleaning the target region.
2. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the shaft assembly consists of a motor shaft and a brush shaft connected through a flexible coupler for transmitting torque and rotation.
3. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the guide rod encircled with a spring at first end passes the pressure hull through second end such that the guide rod along with a pair of mounted bearings dampens vibration.
4. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the cleaning means is a brush.
5. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the free end of brush shaft is supported by support channels attached to the pressure hull.
6. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 is mounted on the ROV through a rear mount and a front mount positioned on the ends of guide rod.
7. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 further consists of a RPM sensor measuring speed of the motor and communicating with the processor for controlling and maintaining the speed of the motor by an electronic speed controller.
8. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 is mounted on a ROV to facilitate efficient cleaning of target region.

S Afsar
Agent for applicant
Krishna & Saurastri Associates
[Registration No. IN/PA-1073]

ABSTRACT
Title: Underwater spot cleaning arrangement for observational class ROV’s
The present invention relates to underwater spot cleaning arrangement fitted to remotely operated vehicles (ROV’S) for cleaning away the biofouling and other unwanted layers of oxides from the target region. Underwater spot cleaning arrangement according to the invention consists of a ROV, consisting of an actuation system, a damping system, and a processor. The actuation system having a pressure hull cylinder housing a motor, driving a cleaning means through a shaft assembly. The damping system allied to the actuation system through a guide rod absorbing vibration and guiding the cleaning means. And said processor integrated with the cleaning arrangement for controlling and running the motor at rated speed for cleaning the target region.
(Fig.1 for publication)
,CLAIMS:I/we claim,
1. A cleaning arrangement, consisting of: an actuation system, a damping system, and a processor wherein,
the actuation system having a pressure hull cylinder housing a motor driving a cleaning means through a shaft assembly;
the damping system allied to the actuation system through a guide rod absorbing vibration and guiding the cleaning means; and
the processor integrated with the cleaning arrangement for controlling and running the motor at rated speed for cleaning the target region.
2. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the shaft assembly consists of a motor shaft and a brush shaft connected through a flexible coupler for transmitting torque and rotation.
3. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the guide rod encircled with a spring at first end passes the pressure hull through second end such that the guide rod along with a pair of mounted bearings dampens vibration.
4. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the cleaning means is a brush.
5. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 wherein, the free end of brush shaft is supported by support channels attached to the pressure hull.
6. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 is mounted on the ROV through a rear mount and a front mount positioned on the ends of guide rod.
7. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 further consists of a RPM sensor measuring speed of the motor and communicating with the processor for controlling and maintaining the speed of the motor by an electronic speed controller.
8. The cleaning arrangement according to claim 1 is mounted on a ROV to facilitate efficient cleaning of target region.

S Afsar
Agent for applicant
Krishna & Saurastri Associates
[Registration No. IN/PA-1073]