Locating and/or marking equipment, such as a locate transmitter or locate receiver, a marking device, or a combined locate and marking device, may be communicatively coupled to and/or equipped with a mobile/portable device (e.g., a mobile phone, personal digital assistant or other portable computing device) that provides processing, electronic storage, electronic display, user interface, communication facilities and/or other functionality (e.g., GPS-enabled functionality) for the equipment. A mobile/portable device may be mechanically and/or electronically coupled to the equipment, and may be programmed so as to log and generate electronic records of various information germane to a locate and/or marking operation (e.g., locate information, marking information, and/or landmark information). Such records may be formatted in various manners, processed and/or analyzed on the mobile/portable device, and/or transmitted to another device (e.g., a remote computer/server) for storage, processing and/or analysis. The mobile/portable device also may provide redundant, shared and/or backup functionality for the equipment to enhance robustness.

Locating equipment communicatively coupled to or equipped with a mobile/portable device

A locate device for a locate operation to detect a presence or an absence of one or more underground facilities is configured to access and display facilities map information, and/or other image information, as a visual aid to facilitate the locate operation. In various aspects, methods and apparatus relate to: selection of an appropriate “base” facilities map, or information from a database of facilities map data, relating to a given work site/dig area; selection of an appropriate pan and/or zoom (resolution) for displaying facilities map information; appropriately updating displayed facilities map information while a locate device is used during a locate operation (e.g. changing pan, zoom and/or orientation); overlaying on the displayed facilities map information locate information and/or landmark information relating to the locate operation; and storing locally on the locate device, and/or transmitting from the locate device, facilities map information and/or overlaid locate/landmark information (e.g., for further processing, analysis and/or subsequent display).

Methods and apparatus for overlaying electronic locate information on facilities map information and/or other image information displayed on a locate device

Exemplary apparatus include locate devices that generate, store and/or transmit electronic records of locate information relating to detection of underground facilities. An exemplary method for analyzing and processing locate information includes a computer-implemented method for visually rendering (e.g., in a display field of a display device) various aspects of locate operations. In one implementation, an output stream of data packets may be provided, wherein each data packet includes one or more flag fields that are set or reset upon at least one actuation of an actuation system of a locate device, and wherein at least some of the data packets include locate information relating to a locate operation.

Methods and apparatus for generating electronic records of locate operations

Marking information relating to use of a marking device to perform a marking operation may be acquired from one or more input devices, logged/stored in local memory of a marking device, formatted in various manners, processed and/or analyzed at the marking device itself, and/or transmitted to another device (e.g., a remote computer/server) for storage, processing and/or analysis. In one example, a marking device may include one or more environmental sensors and/or operational sensors, and the marking information may include environmental information and operational information derived from such sensors. Environmental and/or operational information may be used to control operation of the marking device, assess out-of-tolerance conditions in connection with use of the marking device, and/or provide alerts or other feedback. Additional enhancements are disclosed relating to improving the determination of a location (e.g., GPS coordinates) of a dispensing tip of the marking device during use, a group/solo mode, and tactile functionality of a user interface.

Marking apparatus having enhanced features for underground facility marking operations, and associated methods and systems

Locate information relating to use of a locate device to perform a locate operation may be acquired from one or more input devices, logged/stored in local memory of a locate device, formatted in various manners, processed and/or analyzed at the locate device itself, and/or transmitted to another device (e.g., a remote computer/server) for storage, processing and/or analysis. In one example, a locate device may include one or more environmental sensors and/or operational sensors, and the locate information may include environmental information and operational information derived from such sensors. Environmental and/or operational information may be used to control operation of the locate device, assess out-of-tolerance conditions in connection with use of the locate device, and/or provide alerts or other feedback. Additional enhancements are disclosed relating to improving the determination of a location (e.g., GPS coordinates) of a detecting tip of the locate device during use, a group/solo mode, and tactile functionality of a user interface.

Locate apparatus having enhanced features for underground facility locate operations, and associated methods and systems

To move freely, in-pipe robots must be able to adapt to the various geometric changes of pipes Previously, we described an in-pipe robot that can adapt to changes in diameter and curvature of center curves This robot is able to estimate the forces exerted on the inner surface of the pipes and balance its posture inside the pipe using angular sensors attached to its rotational joints In this paper, a method is proposed to estimate the relative attitude between the robot's main body and the pipe using the angular sensors attached to a pantograph mechanism The use of angular sensors makes the structure of the robot simpler and more effective than the use of force or vision sensors because the normal forces and attitude can be estimated from measured angle information This geometric estimation of attitude relative to the pipes enables the robot to recognize the inclination of the pipes The PAROYS-II robot can control its normal force according to the variation in pipe inclination Thus, the proposed method could reduce power consumption and stress on the robot's parts The algorithm has been validated by multiple experiments

Normal-Force Control for an In-Pipe Robot According to the Inclination of Pipelines

Variable stiffness mechanism for human-friendly robots

Novel mechanisms and simple locomotion strategies for an in-pipe robot that can inspect various pipe types

An apparatus to acquire 3-dimensional geographical information of an underground pipe includes an in-pipe transfer unit which moves along the inside of the underground pipe, a sensing unit which senses 3-dimensional location information of the in-pipe transfer unit, and an information storage unit which stores a value measured by the sensing unit. Accordingly, the depth at which the underground pipe is located as well as 2-dimensional location information of the underground pipe is stored in the information storage unit so that maintenance and repair of the underground pipe can be carried out with greater efficiency.

Dongjun Hyun

Papers

Normal-Force Control for an In-Pipe Robot According to the Inclination of Pipelines

Variable stiffness mechanism for human-friendly robots

Novel mechanisms and simple locomotion strategies for an in-pipe robot that can inspect various pipe types

Apparatus for acquiring 3-dimensional geomatical information of underground pipes and noncontact odometer using optical flow sensor and using the same

Dead-reckoning sensor system and tracking algorithm for 3-D pipeline mapping