JPH0833441B2 - Acoustic positioning device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an acoustic positioning device for measuring the position of a ship or a moving object in water using underwater ultrasonic waves.

[Prior Art] This type of conventional technology is based on "Ocean Acoustics" P.209 to P.214.
(Ocean Acoustics Research Society, published by 59.3.1, Showa 59.3.1), an acoustic positioning device using the SSBL system has a configuration as shown in FIG.

A sounder 1 is installed in the underwater 3. The ultrasonic wave signal from the sounder 1 is received by the wave receiver array 2 attached to the ship 4, and the sound wave generator 1 and the wave receiver array are received by the SSBL receiver 5. The direct distance between the two (hereinafter referred to as slant range) is measured. The signal from the SSBL receiver 5 is transmitted to the display device 7 via the arithmetic circuit 6, and the depth and horizontal distance of the sounder 1 are calculated and displayed on the display device 7.

The measurement operation in such an apparatus is performed as follows.

First, a sounding command is sent from the arithmetic circuit 6 to the transmitter 8 and the SSBL receiver 5. Then, the transmitter 8 commands the sound generator 1 to transmit an ultrasonic signal to the underwater 3. Normal,
The sounder 1 is attached to the object to be measured, and is connected to a transmitter 8 installed on the ship 4 by a cable.

The ultrasonic signal transmitted from the sounder 1 is received by the receiver array 2 attached to the ship 4 through the underwater 3 and SS
It is transmitted to the BL receiver 5. The SSBL receiver 5 measures the slant range r by measuring the time from the transmission command from the transmitter 8 until the receiver array 2 receives a sound wave. Further, each azimuth θ is measured from the phase difference of the signals input to each element of the receiver array. These data are sent to the arithmetic circuit 6, and the depth and horizontal distance of the sounder 1 are calculated from the slant range r and the azimuth angle θ described above, and displayed on the display unit 7.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the device having the above configuration, when the transmission cycle is shortened in order to increase the positioning rate, the slant range r originally takes time from the start of transmission until the receiver array 2 receives ultrasonic waves. Since it is measured by, the next sound wave must be output again before the first sound wave reaches the receiver array 2.
It became difficult for the receiving side to determine which sound wave was transmitted at which time, causing erroneous measurement.

That is, assuming that the sound wave propagation speed in water is c, the sound wave propagation time t is determined by t = r / c, and the sound wave cannot be transmitted in a transmission cycle shorter than this propagation time t.

When the object to which the sound generator 1 is attached moves at high speed, the position can be measured only in the transmission cycle determined by the propagation time t described above, and the movement distance during this period appears as an error, and the measurement error becomes very large. Therefore, the measuring method using the conventional device has a problem that the positioning cycle is limited by the propagation time in water and is not suitable for measuring the motion of the moving body in the deep sea.

The present invention has been made to eliminate the problem that an accurate slant range cannot be measured when the positioning rate is increased, and a large number of gates are opened by opening and closing gates at a predetermined timing even if the positioning rate is increased. It is an object of the present invention to provide an acoustic positioning device that can perform measurement without error even if the positioning rate is increased because a configuration that can separate and measure sound wave signals is used.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention relates to transmitting means for transmitting a sound wave signal from an underwater sound source, a wave receiver array for receiving the sound wave signal from the sound source, and a sound wave signal received by the wave receiver array. In an acoustic positioning device that includes an SSBL receiver and an arithmetic processing unit that performs arithmetic processing of the output of the SSBL receiver by the arithmetic processing unit to measure the azimuth angle and the slant range of the sound source, and provide a plurality of SSBL receivers. , Each SSBL receiver is configured to receive the sound wave signal received by the receiver array through the receiving gate, and further, the sound source is provided with a depth sensor for measuring its depth, and the transmitting means receives the sound from the sound source. The sound wave signal is transmitted from the sound source in a cycle shorter than the sound wave propagation time to the array, and the arithmetic processing means is configured to detect the depth of the sound source and the SSBL measured by the depth sensor.
The first slant range is calculated from the azimuth angle of the sound source measured by the receiver, and the received sound wave that was at the transmission timing of the sound wave signal corresponding to each of the plurality of SSBL receivers using this first slant range Determine the control timing of each receiving gate to supply the signal,
The final azimuth angle and slant range of the sound source are measured from the sound wave signal received by the SSBL receiver.

[Operation] When the positioning rate is increased, the accurate slant range cannot be measured. Therefore, the depth sensor attached to the sound generator is used to measure the depth, and the direction cosine of the sound wave is measured to obtain the azimuth angle. First, the slant range is calculated from the slant range, the reception timing of the SSBL receiver is determined based on this slant range, and a large number of sound wave signals emitted are separated and supplied to each SSBL receiver, regardless of the positioning rate. Measure the final slant range.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an acoustic positioning device according to the present invention. The same parts as those of the conventional device shown in FIG. 3 are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the present invention, a depth sensor 9 for measuring the depth of the sounder 1 is attached to the sounder 1 for use. Therefore, the sounder 1 and the depth sensor 9 are attached to a moving object underwater. The depth data from the depth sensor 9 is measured by the depth processor 10 and sent to the arithmetic circuit 6.

Further, a plurality of SSBL receivers 51 to 53 for processing the received signals from the wave receiver array 2 are provided in parallel and are configured to receive the received signals via the respective switch circuits 11 to 13. The switch circuits 11 to 13 have their gates opened at a predetermined timing in response to a command from the arithmetic circuit 6, and transmit the reception signals from the wave receiver array 2 to the SSBL receivers 51 to 53. First, power is supplied from the transmitter 8 to the sound generator 1 based on a command from the arithmetic circuit 6, and the sound wave from the sound generator 1 is emitted as shown in FIG. 2A. The period of the sound wave signal is T, and the sound waves emitted at the respective timings T ₁ , T ₂ , and T ₃ are received by the SSBL receivers 51 to 53 by the gate opening / closing operation of the switch circuits 11 to 13 described later. Has been done. This sound wave propagates through the water 3 and is received by the receiver array 2.

Furthermore, SSBL receivers 51-53 are provided via switch circuits 11-13.
And the azimuth angle θ is measured. A method of measuring the slant range r and the azimuth angle θ using the wave receiver array 2 and the SSBL receivers 51 to 53 is also described in the above-mentioned documents and the like, and is well known, so the description will not be given here. Omit it.

The time t for propagating in the slant range r is t = r / c (c is velocity). If the transmission cycle T is set larger than this time t, there is no problem in measurement, but if an attempt is made to satisfy the relationship of T <t in order to increase the positioning rate, the receiving side will be shown in FIG.
As shown in (1), the received wave does not exist within the same transmission cycle and overlaps with the received waves from other cycles, making it difficult to accurately measure the slant range r. Therefore, first, only the azimuth angle θ is measured using the SSBL receivers 51 to 53 and sent to the arithmetic circuit 6.

On the other hand, since the depth sensor 9 is attached to the sounder 1, the depth sensor 9 is used to measure the depth at which the sounder 1 is installed. This depth data is transmitted to the depth processor 10 installed on the ship 4, and the depth D2 of the receiver array 2 is subtracted from the measured depth D and sent to the arithmetic circuit 6. The arithmetic circuit 6 calculates the slant range r from the azimuth θ obtained by the SSBL receivers 51 to 53 and the progress obtained by the depth sensor 9 by the following equation.

When the propagation time t _D is calculated using the slant range r expressed by the equation (1), Is obtained.

Further, using this propagation time t _D , the gate time G for opening / closing the gates of the switch circuits 11 to 13 is obtained.

G = t _n ± t _D (n = 1, 2, 3) (3) The gate time G is the pulses T ₁ , T ₂ , transmitted in FIG. 2A as shown in FIGS. 2C to 2E. The switch circuits 11, 12, and 13 are set to open in accordance with the timings E ₁ , E ₂ , and E _{3 at} which T ₃ reaches the receiver array 2. That is, the waves transmitted at timing T ₁ is to reach the receiving transducer array 2 at the timing E _{1 hour} after t, open the gate of the switch circuit 11 at time intervals of t _D before and after t ₁ hour, reception The received signal from the receiver array 2 is transmitted to the SSBL receiver 51.

In this way, the time when the reception of the reception of the transmission timing that is sent out in a cycle shorter than the propagation time of the sound wave between the sound generator 1 and the receiver array 2, the azimuth angle measured last time, and the depth of the sound source are The slant range is calculated based on and the received wave can be separated by setting the gate time based on this. Thus SSBL receiver 51 starts the measurement of the slant range at the timing of T _1, enabling the measurement of the exact slant range to enter only reception sent by the reception timing E ₁ at the timing of the T ₁ .

Similarly, the SSBL receiver 52 starts measurement at the timing of T ₂ , receives only at the reception timing E ₂ , and the SSBL receiver 53
Starts measurement at the timing of T ₃ and receives only at the reception timing E ₃ . Therefore, only the received waves corresponding to each transmission timing are input to the corresponding SSBL receiver and measurements are performed. However, in order to avoid erroneous measurement, the measured slant range is not used for determining the control timing of the gate time, and the control of the gate time is calculated using the azimuth angle and the sound source depth as described above. The azimuth angle and the slant range finally measured in this way are displayed on the display unit 7.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, three SSBL receivers are provided because the transmission cycle is three times as long as the propagation time. However, when the transmission cycle is n times (n is an integer), n SSBL receivers are generally provided. Need a receiver.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail with reference to the embodiments above, in the present invention, the first slant range is calculated using the azimuth angle and the sound source depth measured first, and the predetermined slant range is calculated using this slant range. Since the gate that opens and closes at the timing is controlled and only the received waves that match the transmission timing are separated and received, and the final azimuth angle and slant range are measured, the sound source and receiver Even if sound waves are transmitted in a cycle shorter than the propagation time, that is, even if the positioning rate is increased, accurate measurement is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an acoustic positioning device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a time chart of signals of respective parts of the acoustic positioning device of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional positioning device. . 1 ... Sound generator, 2 ... Receiver array, 3 ... Underwater, 6 ...
… Operation circuit, 8 …… Transmitter, 9 …… Depth sensor, 10 ……
Depth processor, 11 to 13 …… Switch circuit, 51 to 53 …… SSBL
Receiving machine.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transmitting means for transmitting a sound wave signal from an underwater sound source, a receiver array for receiving the sound wave signal from the sound source,
The receiver array comprises an SSBL receiver for receiving a sound wave signal and an arithmetic processing means, and the arithmetic processing means arithmetically processes the output of the SSBL receiver to measure the azimuth angle and the slant range of the sound source. In an acoustic positioning device, a plurality of the SSBL receivers are provided, and each SSBL receiver is configured to receive a sound wave signal received by the receiver array via a reception gate, and the depth of the sound source is further increased. A depth sensor for measurement is provided, the transmitting means transmits a sound wave signal from the sound source in a cycle shorter than a sound wave propagation time from the sound source to the receiver array, and the arithmetic processing means is measured by the depth sensor. The first slant range is calculated from the sound source depth and the azimuth angle of the sound source measured by the SSBL receiver, and this first slant range is used to correspond to each of the plurality of SSBL receivers. The control timing of each reception gate is determined so as to supply the reception signal that matches the transmission timing of the sound wave signal, and the final azimuth and slant range of the sound source are determined from the reception signal received by each SSBL receiver. An acoustic measuring device characterized by measuring.