The enhancement and verification of a pulse induction based buried pipe and cable survey system

The TSS 340 Pipe and Cable Tracking System was introduced in the early 1990s. Since then it has become the industry standard with nearly 200 units in use world-wide. This paper describes the fundamentals of pulse induction, the factors limiting its usability as a subsea tracking tool and the approaches taken to enhance the existing product. The paper covers techniques used to decompose the induced waveform into a summed series of exponential decays, enabling the target, vehicle and seawater to be separately measured. It also describes a simpler approach using dynamic calibration that has yielded robust results.