Patent ID: 9746572
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: G01V

Claim:
1. An integrated buried utility locator system for locating buried utilities using magnetic sensing while simultaneously receiving marker device signals, comprising: a marker device excitation transmitter module for generating and sending a marker device radio frequency excitation signal at a marker device excitation signal frequency; a utility locator front end subsystem to simultaneously receive a magnetic field signal emitted from a buried utility resulting from AC current flowing therein and a radio frequency magnetic field reply signal from a marker device responsive to the excitation signal; a processing element for processing the received buried utility signals and marker device reply signal and generating information associated with the buried utility, including depth and/or positional information of the buried utility, and information associated with the marker device, including depth and/or positional information of the marker device, based on the received buried utility signal and marker device reply signal; and a non-transitory memory for storing the information associated with the buried utility and the marker device; wherein the marker device excitation signal is sent at least partially simultaneously to receiving the buried utility signal.