ES2680068B1 - GUIDANCE AND POSITIONING SYSTEM FOR BOATS THROUGH THREE-DIMENSIONAL SONAR IMAGE DEVICES. - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

GUIDANCE AND POSITIONING SYSTEM FOR BOATS THROUGH

THREE-DIMENSIONAL SONAR IMAGE DEVICES.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The recommended invention relates to a guidance and positioning system for boats by means of a three-dimensional sonar system that reads coded objects so that the reader interrogates different volumes throughout their trajectory obtaining a surface image of the seabed and the seabed. objects that anchor.

The digital treatment of the image of the encoded objects allows to estimate the real position of the boat, the speed and in this way estimate its absolute position and displacement.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention is that of the electronics industry, the auxiliary industry of positioning means and that of auxiliary means related to maritime transport.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

All merchant ships carry redundant positioning systems on board and there is indeed some background on devices that perform a function of reading information from positioning and reading media by different types of readers.

But almost all refer to positions based on GPS technologies and positional lasers, so if owners of triangulation satellites for strategic reasons modify the parameters this modified information can cause irreparable damage.

Think of an oil tanker 250 meters in length that for a wrong information is hit with a spring. The results can be catastrophic.

There are some other antecedents of other means, such as the following: Among them, the inventor is also the inventor of the international patent PCT / ES2015 / 070378, where a guide rail installed along the road sign is described as coding means, although it may optionally be hidden under a layer of asphalt treated with a layer of hydrophobic material of preferred dimensions of 1.5 cm wide by 5 cm deep and where hollows are machined inside, the digesters being the preferred shape of the cavities since the dihedral planes increase the reflected signal thus facilitating their detection .

Likewise, the same inventor has registered the international patent PCT / IB2016 / 051159 which details other means of information with a similar purpose. These information reading and coding systems have more applications where it is not necessary for the sensor to be installed on a mobile and the information that is encoded is not intended solely to determine the relative position of the sensor with respect to the encoded medium.

But the case in which the reader not only interrogates in a pointing direction but is able to explore the seabed obtaining a three-dimensional image where there are certain projections of varying thickness or indentations of different depth has not been resolved so far, and is what the recommended invention achieves.

On the part of the inventor there is no known priority that incorporates the provisions presented by the present invention, nor the advantages that such provision entails.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The recommended invention relates to a guidance and positioning system for boats by means of a three-dimensional sonar system that reads coded objects.

The reader interrogates different volumes throughout his career obtaining an image of the background of the surface and the objects that anchor.

In essence the set is constituted by means that present a coded message, arranged along a path.

The message is coded by means of its form with information on their position.

Through two three-dimensional sonars as sensors, the media is interrogated to obtain an image.

The digital treatment of the image allows estimating the relative position of the sensors with respect to the encoded blocks and thus estimating their instantaneous speed and absolute position in real time, which allows real-time movement decisions to be made.

If this system is combined with an automatic vessel control device, it can be automatically directed and docked conveniently.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The recommended invention relates to a guidance and positioning system for boats by means of a three-dimensional image sonar system that reads coded objects.

If this system is combined with an automatic vessel control device, it can be automatically directed and docked conveniently.

Therefore, the guidance and positioning system consists of two main elements:

.- Duly coded information media.

.- Means of reading the encoded information.

And a third element consisting of an automatic vessel movement control device directly connected to the information provided by the guidance and positioning system.

In a preferred embodiment, the duly encoded information means are constituted by concrete blocks.

These concrete blocks consist of modified regular parallelepipeds whose volume is approximately one cubic meter.

The modifications consist in the removal of part of the material that forms the same so that its upper surface has a series of steps of different depth.

Each step height corresponds to a different logical level existing:

logical levels for the coding of a start bit,

.-logical bit 1,

.-logical bit 0,

.-of repeated bit that associates the logical level with the logical level of the previous bit and serves to detect bit by bit sequences of consecutive equal logical bits,

.- and finally stop bit.

Each block encodes 12 bits of information and by properly combining the blocks, words with a greater number of bits that associate the position of the last bit with the information encoded throughout the word are managed.

The means for reading the encoded information are constituted by two three-dimensional sonars that fixed in a direction parallel to the keel of the ship, one forward and one aft, interrogate the seabed where the concrete blocks containing the information are anchored coded

Through a three-dimensional sonar as a sensor, the means of reading the encoded information are interrogated to obtain an image.

The digital treatment of the image obtained allows estimating the relative position of the sensors with respect to the encoded blocks and in this way estimating their real speed on the background as well as their absolute position in real time and also verifying the drift of the bow with respect to the stern, allowing real-time movement decisions.

If this system is combined with an automatic vessel movement control device, it can be automatically directed and docked conveniently.

Describing sufficiently the nature of the invention, as well as the way of putting it into practice, it should be noted that the provisions indicated above are subject to modifications in detail as long as they do not alter its fundamental principles, established in the preceding paragraphs and summarized in the following claims.

Claims (4)

1a.- Guidance and positioning system for boats using a three-dimensional sonar system that reads coded information media and is characterized by being constituted by two main elements: .- Duly coded information media consisting of modified concrete blocks. .- Means of reading the encoded information constituted by two three-dimensional sonars. .- And a third element consisting of an automatic control device of the vessel's movement directly connected with the information provided by the guidance and positioning system. 2a.- Guidance and positioning system for boats by means of a three-dimensional sonar system that reads coded objects according to the claim and characterized in that the duly coded information means are constituted by concrete blocks. These concrete blocks consist of modified regular parallelepipeds whose volume is approximately one cubic meter. The modifications consist in the removal of part of the material that forms the same so that its upper surface has a series of steps of different depth. Each step height corresponds to a different logical level existing: .- logical levels for the coding of a start bit, .-logical bit 1, .-logical bit 0, .-of repeated bit that associates the logical level with the logical level of the previous bit and serves to detect bit by bit sequences of consecutive equal logical bits, .- and finally stop bit. Each block encodes 12 bits of information and by properly combining the blocks, words with a greater number of bits that associate the position of the last bit with the information encoded throughout the word are managed. 3a.- Guidance and positioning system for vessels by means of a three-dimensional sonar system that reads encoded objects according to the claim and characterized in that the means for reading the encoded information are constituted by two three-dimensional sonars fixed in a direction parallel to the keel of the ship, one in bow and another in stern. 4a.- Guidance and positioning system for boats by means of a three-dimensional sonar system that reads coded objects according to the claim and characterized in that the system is combined with an automatic vessel movement control device.