Patent ID: 7987805
Filing Date: 2011-08-02
Classification: B63G

Abstract:
1. Apparatus for changing the attitude of a submerged object immersed within a surrounding fluid comprising a first expandable reservoir collocated with a fixed, negatively buoyant mass, a second, separate expandable reservoir, a flexible fluid conduit for transferring a ballast fluid between the first and second reservoirs, the reservoirs and conduit buoyantly supported by the surrounding fluid and containing only a fixed volume of the ballast fluid which is lesser in density than the surrounding fluid, the object having a passively stable orientation and having an initial center of mass and buoyancy and a net neutral buoyancy, a controllable pump mechanism for controllably transferring the ballast fluid between the reservoirs via the fluid conduit to provide another passively stable attitude of the object with a new center of mass and buoyancy but with an unchanged net neutral buoyancy, thereby controllably changing the attitude of the immersed object.