JPH07234273A - Radar - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a radar with enhanced transmission/reception performance without requiring a microwave circuit and to require no long-size cable and thus eliminate the work of laying the cable by being constructed chiefly of a plurality of radio transmitting portions, a solar cell, a storage battery, an electric motor and a rotary casing. CONSTITUTION:An antenna 1, a transmitting/receiving portion 2, a second radio transmitting portion 14 for transferring signals between the transmitting/receiving portion 2 and a monitor portion 3, a solar cell 11 and a storage battery 12 for supplying power to them, and an electric motor 7 for driving a rotary casing 15, are provided on the common casing 15. A first radio transmitting portion 13 corresponding to the transmitting portion 14 is provided adjacent the monitor portion 3. This constitution eliminates the need for the rotary joint of a microwave circuit and the microwave circuit of a coaxial, waveguide converter or the like. Therefore, the transmission loss of the transmitted and received power at a rotary joint or the like is avoided and transmission/reception performance is enhanced. Since the power necessary for the variety of devices on the casing 15 is all derived from the cell 11 and the storage battery 12, the need for long-size power cable 8 and signal cable is eliminated, along with that for the work of laying them.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a radar device for rotating a directional antenna to measure the direction and distance of a target.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 shows a simplified block diagram of an example of a conventional antenna rotating radar apparatus. In the figure,
Reference numeral 1 denotes a radar antenna such as a parabola type antenna or a slot type antenna, which is used by being mounted on a rotating casing that rotates horizontally. Reference numeral 2 is a transmitter / receiver unit including a transmitter, a transmission / reception switching unit, and a receiver. The transmitter is a microwave oscillator such as a magnetron. The transmission / reception switching unit is a circulator, a T-branch, etc., and the receiver is a high power limiter, a mixer, It is composed of a local oscillator, an intermediate frequency amplifier, and the like.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a monitor unit including an operation unit and an indicator for observing a radar image, and 4 a power supply unit. Reference numeral 5 is a rotary joint for high-frequency connection with a rotating radar antenna and a fixed three-dimensional circuit on the transmitter / receiver side, 6 is a rotation driving electric motor for the antenna 1, and 8 and 9 are respectively from the power supply unit 4 to the monitor unit 3, And the transmitting / receiving unit 2 and the electric motor 6
An electric power cable 10 for supplying electric power to a signal cable 10 for transmitting a control signal, a pulse repetition signal, a receiver output signal, and the like.

The above rotary radar device operates as follows. That is, in response to the pulse repetition signal from the monitor unit 3, the microwave oscillator of the transmission / reception unit 2 repeatedly generates a pulsed microwave, and the microwave passes through the transmission / reception switcher and the rotary joint 5 and the radar antenna 1 Sent to. The antenna rotates under the control of a control signal from the monitor unit 3, and radiates the microwave to the outside with good directivity while rotating. The microwave radiated, reflected by hitting a target object (target), and returned, is again received by the same antenna, and the rotary joint 5
To the receiver via the transmission / reception switching device of the transmission / reception unit 2. Here, the received radio waves are converted to an intermediate frequency and amplified,
The amplified intermediate frequency signal is sent to the monitor unit 3 via the signal cable 10 and processed. The radar image signal obtained by the signal processing causes a radar image to be displayed on the indicator so that the direction of the target and the distance to the target can be measured.

[0005]

In the conventional antenna rotating type radar apparatus as described above, the rotary joint 5 for connecting the antenna 1 and the transmitting / receiving section 2 at high frequency is required, and the transmitting / receiving section 2 is further provided. There may be a case where a three-dimensional circuit such as a coaxial / waveguide converter is required between the rotary joint 5 and the rotary joint 5, but since these three-dimensional circuits are accompanied by conversion of electromagnetic field modes, generally, microwave transmission loss is large, This is one of the causes of lowering the transmission / reception performance of the radar device.

The transmitter / receiver 2 is usually provided in the vicinity of the antenna 1 for cost reasons due to the characteristic that the three-dimensional circuit up to the antenna is made as short as possible. Therefore, the power cable 9 to the transmitter / receiver 2 or the like is required. On the contrary, the signal cable 10 needs to be long, and construction is required to lay a long cable from the observation room where the monitor is placed to the transmitter / receiver installed at a high place.

The present invention is intended to provide a radar device having a novel structure that solves the above problems.

[0008]

In an antenna rotation type radar device including an antenna, a transmitter / receiver, and a monitor, a first wireless transmitter is provided adjacent to the monitor, and the antenna and the transmitter / receiver are provided. A second wireless transmission unit, a solar cell, a storage battery, and an electric motor for driving the rotary housing, which are mounted on a common rotary housing directly or via an interposition, and the solar cell A configuration in which a storage battery is used as a power supply source of various devices on the rotary housing, and signals are exchanged between the monitor unit and the transmission / reception unit via the first wireless transmission unit and the second wireless transmission unit. It is the one.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of the radar apparatus of the present invention. In the figure, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 indicate the same or corresponding ones. Further, 11 is a solar cell, 12 is a storage battery, 13 is a first wireless transmission unit, 14
Is a second wireless transmission unit, and 7 is an electric motor for driving the rotary housing.

In the radar device, the components surrounded by broken lines as the 15-rotation housing, that is, the antenna 1, the transmitting / receiving unit 2, the solar cell 11, the storage battery 12, the second wireless transmission unit 14, and the electric motor 7 are commonly rotated. Other components on the housing,
The monitor unit 3 and the first wireless transmission unit 13 are provided in the observation room. Each of the wireless transmission units includes a transmission / reception unit including a transmission / reception antenna.

In the rotary casing 15, various devices other than the solar cell are covered with a common box-shaped protective cover made of a dielectric material having good weather resistance and high electromagnetic wave transparency, and the solar cell 11 has the same protective cover. It is attached to the outer surface. The transmitter / receiver 2 and the second wireless transmitter 14 are packaged into one package and mounted on the back surface of the antenna 1. The electric motor 7 is attached to the rotating housing so that the electric motor main body and the immediate rotating housing rotate about the fixed shaft as the rotating shaft.

In the solar cell 11, as is well known, incident light energy is converted into electric power, and the electric power is charged into a storage battery (for example, Ni-Cd battery) 12, and the transmitting / receiving unit 2 and the second
It is used as a power source for various devices such as the wireless transmission unit 14 and the electric motor 7 on the rotating housing.

The outline of the operation of the above embodiment will be described below. Signals such as control signals for starting and stopping and pulse repetition signals are sent from the monitor unit 3 to the first wireless transmission unit 13, and the transmission unit uses these signals to generate carrier waves (for example, 60 MH).
The z-band) is modulated, the radio wave is radiated from the transmitting / receiving antenna of the transmitting unit, and is received by the transmitting / receiving antenna of the second wireless transmission unit 14 on the rotating housing. Each signal obtained by demodulation by the receiver of the transmission unit is sent to the transmission / reception unit 2 and the electric motor 7 to control their operations.

The microwave generated by the oscillator of the transmitter of the transmitter / receiver 2 is rotated by the antenna 1 which is integrated with the device.
Part of the radio waves radiated from the air into the air and reflected back by the target, as in the case of ordinary radar, are received again by the same antenna. This received radio wave is sent to the receiver of the transmission / reception unit 2, converted into an intermediate frequency (for example, 60 MHz band) signal, amplified, and then sent to the second wireless transmission unit 14 and radiated from the transmission / reception antenna of the transmission unit. It This radio wave is transmitted to the first wireless transmission unit 1
The radar image signal received by the transmitting / receiving antenna 3 and sent to the monitor unit 3 for signal processing is observed by the indicator as a radar image.

As described above, according to the present invention, in addition to the antenna, a solar cell, a storage battery, a transmitting / receiving section, a wireless transmission section and many other devices are mounted on the rotating housing. Among them, the antenna 1 Is a plane type antenna such as a slot type antenna or a microstrip patch type antenna, and the receiver of the transmitter / receiver 2 and the circuits of the radio transmitter 14 are formed into strip lines and assembled on a printed circuit board (PCB board). As a result, it can be made compact and lightweight, and can be easily incorporated into the rotary housing. When trying to make the circuit of the radar transmitter into a strip line, its output level is limited, but it is easy with a pulse output of several kW and an average output of several W, and a coaxial output type magnetron is used as an oscillation tube. If so, the circuit connection becomes simple, and it can be assembled into an extremely compact shape.

On the fixed side, the circuit connection between the main body (transmitter / receiver) of the first wireless transmission unit 13 and the monitor unit 3 can be incorporated in the same housing, so that a power cable or a signal cable is particularly preferable. There is no need to provide it.

[0017]

As described above, in the radar device of the present invention, the antenna, the transmitting / receiving section, the second wireless transmitting section for exchanging signals between the transmitting / receiving section and the monitor section, and these elements are provided. A first wireless transmission corresponding to the second wireless transmission section, in which a solar cell for supplying electric power, a storage battery, and an electric motor for driving the rotating case are provided on a common rotating case and are provided in parallel with a monitor section. Since the configuration is provided with the section, first, the three-dimensional circuit such as the rotary joint of the microwave three-dimensional circuit and the coaxial / waveguide converter that is required accompanying it is not necessary. Therefore, in terms of the characteristics of the radar device, the transmission loss of the transmission power and the reception power that occurs in the rotary joint or the like is eliminated, and the transmission / reception performance is improved accordingly.

Further, since all the electric power required for the devices on the rotary housing such as the transmitter / receiver, the second wireless transmitter, the electric motor for driving the rotary housing, etc. is covered by the solar cell and the storage battery,
Long-term power cables and signal cables from the observation room to the antenna section and the transmission / reception section, which are required in the conventional radar device, are not required, and accordingly, laying work for them is also unnecessary.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a radar device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of a conventional antenna rotation type radar device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: radar antenna, 2: transmitting / receiving unit, 3: monitoring unit,
4: power supply section, 5: rotary joint, 6, 7: electric motor, 8, 9: power cable, 10: signal cable, 1
1: solar cell, 12: storage battery, 13: first wireless transmission unit,
14: 2nd wireless transmission part 15: Rotating housing part.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an antenna rotation type radar device comprising an antenna, a transmitter / receiver and a monitor, a first radio transmitter is provided in parallel with the monitor, the antenna, the transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter. Wireless transmission unit, solar cell,
A storage battery and an electric motor for driving the rotary housing are provided on a common rotary housing, directly or via an interposition, and the solar cell and the storage battery are installed in various devices on the rotary housing. A radar device, which is used as a power supply source, and is configured to exchange signals between the monitor unit and the transmission / reception unit via the first wireless transmission unit and the second wireless transmission unit.