The complete paper describes a method of retrieving downhole data that is a practical and inexpensive alternative to wireline or slickline logging and permanently installed sensors. The autonomous logging platform, called the Sensor Ball, is a handheld, untethered logging tool that one person can deploy and recover from a pressurized well with no special equipment or crew.
The Autonomous Logging Platform
The tool is a battery-powered, self-deployed logging platform. A small dissolvable metal weight is attached to the housing magnetically and helps the free-fall of the tool in the well. Once a desired and programmed depth is reached, the tool releases the weight, and thus changes buoyancy and floats back to surface.
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