Research on measurement and control system of deep-sea self-contained static cone penetration probe

The geotechnical engineering properties of seabed soils hold vital significance in various marine engineering domains, including offshore petroleum platforms, underwater tunnels, oil and gas pipelines, submarine cables, topographic surveys, and underwater disaster forecasting. However, existing equipment for measuring seabed geotechnical parameters generally suffers from issues such as the inability to achieve in-situ real-time measurements, limited measurement parameters, cumbersome operational procedures for engineering measurements, and low measurement accuracy. In response to these existing problems, this paper proposes a self-contained static cone penetration probe and measurement control system suitable for multi-parameter measurements in deep-sea environments. The system has established a three-in-one measurement approach for cone tip resistance, sidewall frictional force, and pore water pressure, based on a self-contained structure with temperature and attitude information as calibration references. For the weak strain signals, signal conditioning, acquisition, and storage circuits were designed, and their performance parameters were validated in conjunction with simulation software to ensure their rationality. On the basis of hardware circuits, multitasking scheduling was achieved using the FreeRTOS real-time operating system embedded in the chip. This enabled data collection, storage, monitoring, and low-power design, thus realizing the functionality of multi-parameter, rapid-response data acquisition and storage. •Deep sea; static cone penetration test; self-contained; multi-parameter measurement; FreeRTOS system.