Patent ID: 8900106

Claim:
A subsea tool changer, comprising: a. a housing adapted for use subsea, the housing comprising: i. a bottom comprising an outer boundary; ii. a plurality of side walls attached to the bottom at the outer boundary, the side walls and bottom defining an open interior of the housing; and iii. a substantially open side wall; b. a circular carousel rotatably mounted within the housing, the carousel comprising an upper surface exposed to the housing open interior; c. a plurality of tool retainers attached to the upper surface of the carousel, each of the tool retainers having a respective longitudinal axis that is disposed radially with respect to a center of the carousel, each tool retainer comprising: i. a first end disposed proximate the center of the carousel; and iii. a second end disposed radially opposite the tool retainer first end, each tool retainer second end adapted to removably receive a respective tool having a respective tool longitudinal axis into the respective tool retainer, with the respective tool longitudinal axis extending along the tool retainer's corresponding longitudinal axis; d. a power drive, comprising: i. a first power drive interface; ii. a power drive tool mating end adapted to selectively engage and disengage one of the tools, each of the tools comprising a respective commonly configured tool power interface, the power drive tool mating end further adapted to selectively couple the first power drive interface with and decouple the first power drive interface from the respective tool's commonly configured tool power interface; and iii. a power source interface operatively coupled to the first power drive interface, the power source interface adapted to operatively couple to a power source, receive at least one of electrical power or hydraulic power from the power source, and provide that power to the first power drive interface; and e. a tool changer movably disposed at least partially within the housing, the tool changer comprising a tool changer first end disposed within the housing and a tool changer second end disposed opposite the tool changer first end and proximate the housing open side wall, the power drive pivotably connected to the tool changer second end, the tool changer adapted to: i. selectively insert the power drive tool mating end into a respective one of the tools that is stowed in one of the plurality of tool retainers; ii. extract the power drive and the tool, into which tool the power drive tool mating end was inserted, from that tool retainer; iii. flip the extracted tool and power drive about an axis that is transverse with respect to the longitudinal axis of the extracted tool so as to flip the extracted tool and the longitudinal axis thereof from a first position to a second position such that the flipping of the extracted tool; iv. selectively flip the extracted tool and power drive from the second position back to the first position; and v. reseat the extracted tool back into one of the plurality of tool retainers.