US Patent 11015996 Electro acoustic technology (EAT) for real time intelligent pigging

A new approach to pipeline pigging using electro acoustic technology (EAT) is described in which the data from a pigging operation can be transmitted in real time to optical fiber on the outside of the pipeline and detected using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) techniques, including the precise location, velocity and acceleration of the pig using the DAS technique. Thus the sensor data can easily be mapped to its precise location in real time. The EAT sensors use the DAS fiber as a data transmission line by converting electrical or optical signals to acoustic signals which excite the fiber and can be detected by an interrogator at the pig launch site.