CN117890894A

CN117890894A - Multi-beam detection system and method

Info

Publication number: CN117890894A
Application number: CN202410301974.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 满令斌; 武诚; 李春雨; 陈君; 邬松
Original assignee: Zhejiang Xingtian Marine Science And Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Zhejiang Xingtian Marine Science And Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2024-03-15
Filing date: 2024-03-15
Publication date: 2024-04-16
Anticipated expiration: 2044-03-15
Also published as: CN117890894B

Abstract

The application discloses a multi-beam detection system and method. The multi-beam detection system is arranged on the carrying platform and comprises a transducer array, a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit and a controller; the transmitting circuit is used for driving the transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam in a first direction to a water area where the carrying platform is located after the sounding function is started, and driving the transducer array to transmit a second sound wave beam in a second direction to the water area after the sounding function is started, wherein the second direction is perpendicular to the first direction; the receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive the first echo wave beam in the second direction after the sounding function is started, and driving the transducer array to receive the second echo wave beam in the first direction after the speed measuring function is started; the controller is used for determining water depth information of the water area based on the first sound wave beam and the first echo wave beam, and determining the navigation speed of the carrying platform based on the first sound wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second sound wave beam and the second echo wave beam.

Description

Multi-beam detection system and method

Technical Field

The application relates to the field of water area detection, in particular to a multi-beam detection system and a multi-beam detection method.

Background

Currently, in the field of underwater topography exploration, underwater carriers, such as remote underwater robots (Remotely Operated Vehicle, ROV), autonomous unmanned vehicles (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, AUV) and the like, are generally used as carrying platforms for carrying acoustic devices such as multi-beam sounding sonar and doppler velocimetry sonar.

The multi-beam sounding sonar is used for mapping underwater topography, and the Doppler velocimetry sonar is combined with the inertial navigation unit and used for positioning and navigation of an underwater carrier. Because the functions of the two devices are emphasized and the interfaces are different, the two devices cannot be replaced with each other, and meanwhile, the use cost of a user is greatly improved, the design and the use difficulty of the carrying platform are increased, the excessive internal space of the carrying platform is occupied, so that more other effective loads cannot be installed, and the applicable working frequency bands are overlapped under the same sounding height condition, so that the two devices are very easy to interfere with each other, and the working performance of the two devices is limited.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application aims to provide a multi-beam detection system and a multi-beam detection method, which are used for realizing a sounding function and a speed measuring function under the condition that Doppler speed measuring sonar is not required to be installed.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the present application adopts the following technical scheme:

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a multi-beam detection system disposed on a mounting platform, where the system includes a transducer array, a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, and a controller;

the transmitting circuit is used for driving the transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam in a first direction to a water area where the carrying platform is located after the sounding function is started, and driving the transducer array to transmit a second sound wave beam in a second direction to the water area after the speed measuring function is started, wherein the second direction is perpendicular to the first direction;

the receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive a first echo wave beam in the second direction after the sounding function is started, and driving the transducer array to receive a second echo wave beam in the first direction after the velocity measuring function is started, wherein the first echo wave beam is formed by reflecting the first sound wave beam, and the second echo wave beam is formed by reflecting the second sound wave beam;

the controller is used for determining the water depth information of the water area based on the first sound wave beam and the first echo wave beam, and determining the sailing speed of the carrying platform based on the first sound wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second sound wave beam and the second echo wave beam.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a multi-beam detection method, including:

in the process that the carrying platform sails in a target water area, a first sound wave beam in a first direction is emitted to the target water area through a transducer array, a first echo wave beam in a second direction is received through the transducer array, the first echo wave beam is formed by reflecting the first sound wave beam, and the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction;

transmitting a second acoustic wave beam in the second direction to the target water area through the transducer array, and receiving a second echo wave beam in the first direction through the transducer array, wherein the second echo wave beam is formed after the second acoustic wave beam is reflected;

determining water depth information of the target water area based on the first acoustic wave beam and the first echo wave beam;

and determining the sailing speed of the carrying platform based on the first acoustic wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second acoustic wave beam and the second echo wave beam.

The above-mentioned at least one technical scheme that this application embodiment adopted can reach following beneficial effect:

a set of transducer array with beam receiving and transmitting functions is used, and a set of corresponding transmitting circuit, receiving circuit and controller are designed; when depth measurement is needed, a transmitting circuit is used for driving a transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam in a first direction to a measured water area, a receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive a first echo beam which is formed by reflecting the first sound wave beam and is perpendicular to the first direction (namely a second direction), and then a controller is used for carrying out water depth calculation based on the first sound wave beam and the first echo beam, so that the depth measurement function is realized; when the speed measurement is needed, the transmitting circuit is used for driving the transducer array to transmit a second sound wave beam in a second direction to the measured water area, the receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive a second echo wave beam in a first direction, which is formed after the second sound wave beam is reflected, and then the controller is used for carrying out speed calculation based on the sound wave beams in two directions and the echo wave beams in two directions, so that the speed measurement function is realized. Therefore, the multi-beam detection system provided by the embodiment of the application can realize the sounding function and the speed measurement function by only using one set of transducer array and hardware equipment, and does not need to be provided with Doppler speed measurement sonar at the same time, so that the use cost of a user is reduced, the sounding precision and the speed measurement precision are provided, the internal space of a carrying platform is saved, the weight of the carrying platform is reduced, more effective loads are increased on the carrying platform, and the design and the use difficulty of the carrying platform are reduced.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and do not constitute an undue limitation to the application. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a block diagram of a multi-beam detection system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an acoustic wave beam and an echo beam according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a beam footprint provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a block diagram of a multi-beam detection system according to another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an array type of a transducer array according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an array type of a transducer array according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of driving a first transducer array for phased emission according to one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of driving a first transducer array for phased emission according to another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of driving a first transducer array for phased reception according to one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of driving a first transducer array for phased reception according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a detection flow based on a multi-beam sounding system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a flow chart of a multi-beam detection method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of the present application, the technical solutions of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to specific embodiments of the present application and corresponding drawings. It will be apparent that the described embodiments are only some, but not all, of the embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments, which can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without undue burden from the present disclosure, are within the scope of the present disclosure.

The terms first, second and the like in the description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate such that embodiments of the present application may be implemented in sequences other than those illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, in the present specification and claims, "and/or" means at least one of the connected objects, and the character "/" generally means a relationship in which the associated object is an "or" before and after.

Currently, in order to realize the sounding function and the speed measuring function when underwater detection is performed, multi-beam sounding sonar and Doppler speed measuring sonar are required to be deployed on a carrying platform at the same time. However, this approach has the following technical problems:

first, multibeam sounding sonar and Doppler speed measurement sonar use two independent hardware systems, have improved use cost. Specifically, the multi-beam sounding sonar is not suitable for measuring the underwater navigation speed because the beam of the emitted beam in the navigation direction is narrow (generally less than 2 °) and is basically perpendicular to the ground direction, which results in difficulty in measuring the doppler frequency offset in the navigation direction. The Doppler speed measurement sonar cannot finish the detection of the terrain in a large range because of fewer beams in the horizontal direction, so that the functions of the two kinds of sonar are different in emphasis and cannot be replaced by each other. The two devices are provided with different transducers and signal processing systems and cannot be replaced with each other, and the two devices are required to be installed simultaneously when the carrying platform is used for underwater topography mapping, so that the use cost of a user is greatly increased.

And secondly, the multi-beam sounding sonar and the Doppler velocity measurement sonar are overlapped by using working frequency bands under the condition of the same sounding bottom height, so that the interference is very easy, and the working performance of the two is limited. Specifically, because the multi-beam sounding sonar and the Doppler velocimetry sonar are both used for measuring by using echo beams reflected by the water bottom, the water body has different absorption and attenuation coefficients for the sound wave beams with different frequencies, and therefore, different detection distances are suitable for the sound wave beams with different frequencies. The multi-beam sounding sonar and the Doppler speed measuring sonar are arranged on the same carrying platform, the acting distances of the multi-beam sounding sonar and the Doppler speed measuring sonar are basically consistent, so that the underwater acoustic frequency ranges meeting the application requirements of the multi-beam sounding sonar and the Doppler speed measuring sonar are basically consistent, different frequency ranges must be used when the multi-beam sounding sonar and the Doppler speed measuring sonar work simultaneously, otherwise, the multi-beam sounding precision and the Doppler speed measuring sonar interfere with each other, the working bandwidth is reduced, the multi-beam sounding precision and the Doppler speed measuring precision are influenced, and the working performance of the two sonars is limited.

Thirdly, install multibeam sounding sonar and Doppler speed measurement sonar simultaneously, limited the design and the use degree of difficulty of carrying on the platform. In particular, the two sonars typically have different mechanical, electrical and data interfaces, and the transducers and signal processing systems used by the two sonars typically have different profiles and mechanical mounting interfaces. The mounting platform must consider the mechanical mounting interfaces of two kinds of sonar at the same time in design. When the device is used, the power supply, the signal transmission and the like of the two sonars are also required to be respectively designed with corresponding interfaces and cables, the two sonars are sourced from different manufacturers, the output signal protocols are generally different, and the information output by the two sonars is also required to be respectively processed by adopting different software interfaces. These all greatly increase the design and use difficulties of the carrying platform.

Fourth, install multibeam sounding sonar and Doppler speed measurement sonar simultaneously and reduced the payload of carrying platform, increased carrying platform's volume. Specifically, installing two kinds of sonar simultaneously increases the weight of the carrying platform, and occupies more internal space of the carrying platform, thereby resulting in the inability to install more other payloads.

In view of the above technical problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a multi-beam detection system disposed on a carrying platform, which uses a set of transducer arrays with beam receiving and transmitting functions, and designs a set of corresponding transmitting circuits, receiving circuits and controllers; when depth measurement is needed, a transmitting circuit is used for driving a transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam in a first direction to a measured water area, a receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive a first echo beam which is formed by reflecting the first sound wave beam and is perpendicular to the first direction (namely a second direction), and then a controller is used for carrying out water depth calculation based on the first sound wave beam and the first echo beam, so that the depth measurement function is realized; when the speed measurement is needed, the transmitting circuit is used for driving the transducer array to transmit a second sound wave beam in a second direction to the measured water area, the receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive a second echo wave beam in a first direction, which is formed after the second sound wave beam is reflected, and then the controller is used for carrying out speed calculation based on the sound wave beams in two directions and the echo wave beams in two directions, so that the speed measurement function is realized. Therefore, the multi-beam detection system provided by the embodiment of the application can realize the sounding function and the speed measurement function by only using one set of transducer array and hardware equipment, and does not need to be provided with Doppler speed measurement sonar at the same time, so that the use cost of a user is reduced, the sounding precision and the speed measurement precision are provided, the internal space of a carrying platform is saved, the weight of the carrying platform is reduced, more effective loads are increased on the carrying platform, and the design and the use difficulty of the carrying platform are reduced.

The following describes in detail the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, a block diagram of a multi-beam detection system according to an embodiment of the present application includes a transducer array, a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, and a controller.

The transducer array has a plurality of transducers arranged in a two-dimensional array. Each transducer has a beam receiving and transmitting function, and can not only transmit an acoustic wave beam, but also receive an echo wave beam formed by reflecting the acoustic wave beam.

The transmitting circuit is used for driving the transducer array to transmit the sound wave beam with specific directivity. Specifically, the transmitting circuit is used for driving the transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam in a first direction to a water area where the carrying platform is located after the sounding function is started, and driving the transducer array to transmit a second sound wave beam in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to the water area after the sounding function is started.

The receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive the echo wave beam with specific directivity. Specifically, the receiving circuit is configured to drive the transducer array to receive the first echo beam in the second direction after the sounding function is turned on, and further drive the transducer array to receive the second echo beam in the first direction after the speed measurement function is turned on. The first echo wave beam is formed by reflecting a first sound wave beam, and the second echo wave beam is formed by reflecting a second sound wave beam.

The controller has data processing and control functions. Specifically, the controller is used for turning on the sounding function and/or the speed measuring function. The controller is further configured to determine water depth information of the water area based on the first acoustic wave beam and the first echo wave beam, and determine a voyage speed of the loading platform based on the first acoustic wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second acoustic wave beam, and the second echo wave beam.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first direction and the second direction may be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. As an example, the first direction is a fore-aft direction of the mounting platform, and the second direction is a width direction of the mounting platform. Since the direction of the mounting platform is parallel to the sailing direction during sailing, the first direction is also the sailing direction in this case, and the second direction is perpendicular to the sailing direction, also referred to as the horizontal direction.

As shown in fig. 2 (a), after the sounding function is turned on, the transducer array is driven by the transmitting circuit to transmit a fan-shaped acoustic wave beam in a first direction (i.e., a first acoustic wave beam), and driven by the receiving circuit to form a narrower echo beam in a second direction (i.e., a first echo beam) and receive the narrower echo beam. The first wave beam and the first echo wave beam are overlapped to form a first wave beam footprint in a first direction, and a plurality of first wave beam footprints can be formed in a horizontal direction by receiving a plurality of first echo wave beams; further, the water depth value corresponding to each beam 'overlapping point' can be accurately measured based on the first beam footprints. In practical applications, the coverage angle of the first acoustic wave beam in the first direction is large (typically greater than 120 °), but the coverage angle in the second direction is small (typically less than 2 °); the coverage angle of the first echo beam in the first direction is small (typically less than 1 °) and the coverage angle in the second direction is large, so that the resulting first beam footprint is a narrow beam (typically less than 1 ° ×2°).

As shown in fig. 2 (b), after the speed measurement function is started, the transducer array transmits a fan-shaped sound wave beam (i.e., a second sound wave beam) in a second direction under the driving of the transmitting circuit in addition to transmitting the first sound wave beam and receiving the first echo wave beam, and forms a narrower echo wave beam (i.e., a second echo wave beam) in the first direction and receives the narrower echo wave beam by using a wave beam forming technology under the driving of the receiving circuit. Forming a second beam footprint in a second direction after the second acoustic beam and the second echo beam are overlapped; further, based on the first beam footprint and the second beam footprint, a speed calculation may be performed to obtain a navigation speed of the mounting platform.

In practical applications, in order to accurately perform the water depth calculation and the velocity calculation, the first echo beam includes two echo beams (0 ° in the vertical direction) deviated by +30° and-30 ° in the first direction, the second echo beam includes two echo beams (0 ° in the vertical direction) deviated by +30° and-30 ° in the second direction, and the first beam footprint and the second beam footprint formed after the two echo beams are superimposed with the first acoustic beam and the second acoustic beam are shown in fig. 3. In this case, by calculating the doppler frequency offsets of the two first beam footprints in the second direction, the navigation speed of the carrying platform in the second direction can be obtained by calculation; similarly, the navigation speed of the carrying platform in the first direction can be obtained by calculating Doppler frequency offsets of the two second beam footprints in the first direction; similarly, the navigation speed of the carrying platform in the vertical direction can be obtained by calculating the Doppler frequency offset of the four wave beam footprints.

In this embodiment of the present application, the transducer array may have any suitable array type, and may specifically be set according to a use scenario and a use requirement, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 4 and 5, the transducer array includes a first transducer array 11 and a second transducer array 12. The light filled circular pattern in the figure represents the transducers in the first transducer array 11 and the dark filled circular pattern represents the transducers in the second transducer array 12. The first transducer array 11 and the second transducer 12 each have a beam transmitting and receiving function. It should be noted that the number of transducers in the drawings is only an example, and should not be construed as limiting the number of transducers in the embodiments of the present application.

The first transducer array 11 is arranged to transmit a first acoustic wave beam under the drive of the transmitting circuit and to receive a second echo beam under the drive of the receiving circuit. The transducers in the first transducer array 11 are arranged in a rectangular array, and the number of transducers in the first direction x is smaller than the number of transducers in the second direction y.

The second transducer array 12 is configured to transmit a second acoustic beam under the drive of the transmit circuitry and to receive the first echo beam under the drive of the receive circuitry. The transducers in the second transducer array are arranged in a rectangular array, and the number of the transducers in the first direction x is larger than the number of the transducers in the second direction y.

In the above embodiment, the first transducer array 11 and the second transducer array 12 form a T shape. As an example, the transducers in the first transducer array 11 are in an arcuate array in a first direction x (as shown by the dashed lines in fig. 5) and in a linear array in a second direction y. Under the array type, a plurality of transducers in the first direction x are connected in parallel to form an arc array element, and then a plurality of array elements are formed in the second direction y to form a linear array, so that the emitted first sound wave beam can be ensured to have enough open angle, and the scanning width requirement of the multi-beam sounding function can be met. After the speed measuring function is turned on, the first transducer array 11 also receives a second echo beam with a plurality of transducers in the second direction y.

Similarly, as an example, the transducers in the second transducer array 12 are in a linear array in the first direction x and in an arcuate or linear array in the second direction (as shown in phantom in FIG. 5, which is illustrated in FIG. 5 by the arcuate array only). Under the array type, a plurality of transducers in the second direction y are connected in parallel to form an arc array element, and then a plurality of array elements are formed in the first direction x to form a linear array, so that the emitted second sound wave beam can be ensured to have enough open angles, and the scanning width requirement of the multi-beam sounding function can be met. In addition, the second transducer array receives a first echo beam with a plurality of transducers in a first direction x.

In practical application, the array type can be suitable for use scenes with high requirements on scanning width, such as use scenes taking the sounding function as a main function and taking the speed measuring function into consideration.

In another embodiment, as shown in fig. 6 (a), the transducer array includes a plurality of transducers arranged in a circular array. In this case, the transmitting circuit is configured to turn on a portion of the transducers arranged in a first rectangular array from the plurality of transducers to form the first transducer array 11, and turn on a portion of the transducers arranged in a second rectangular array to form the second transducer array 12. Wherein, as in (b) of fig. 6, the number of transducers in the first direction x in the first transducer array 11 is smaller than the number of transducers in the second direction y; the number of transducers in the first direction x in the second transducer array 12 is greater than the number of transducers in the second direction y.

The transmitting circuit is further used for driving the first transducer array 11 to transmit a first sound wave beam to the water area after the sounding function is started, and driving the second transducer array 12 to transmit a second sound wave beam to the water area after the sounding function is started. The receiving circuit is used for driving the second transducer array to receive the first echo wave beam after the sounding function is started, and driving the first transducer array to receive the second echo wave beam after the sounding function is started.

In the above embodiment, the first transducer array 11 and the second transducer array 12 constitute a cross shape. In this array type, for the first transducer array 11, a plurality of transducers in the first direction x are connected in parallel to form an array element, and a plurality of array elements are formed in the second direction y to form a linear array. The specific implementation process of the first transducer array 11 for performing beam transceiving is similar to that of the first transducer array for performing beam transceiving in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and will not be described again.

For the second transducer array 12, a plurality of transducers in the second direction y are connected in parallel to form an array element, and a plurality of array elements are formed in the first direction x to form a linear array. The specific implementation process of the second transducer array 12 for performing beam transceiving is similar to that of the second transducer array in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and will not be repeated.

In practical application, the array type can be suitable for use scenes with low requirements on scanning width, such as use scenes taking the speed measuring function as a main function and taking the depth measuring function into consideration.

In this embodiment of the present application, the transmitting circuit may have any suitable number, and may specifically be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. As an example, if the transducer array is the transducer array shown in fig. 5, the number of the transmitting circuits is two, as shown in fig. 4, and the transmitting circuits include a first transmitting circuit and a second transmitting circuit, where the first transmitting circuit is used for driving the first transducer array to transmit a first acoustic wave beam, and the second transmitting circuit is used for driving the second transducer array to transmit a second acoustic wave beam; if the transducer array is the one shown in fig. 6 (a), the number of transmitting circuits is one.

The transmitting circuit may also have any suitable structure, and may be specifically set according to practical requirements, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. As an example, the transmit circuit may comprise a transmit control unit and a number of switches equal to the number of transducers in the transducer array, i.e. each switch has a corresponding transducer and each switch is connected in parallel with its corresponding transducer. Thus, the emission control unit can select the needed transducer to emit the wave beam by controlling the on or off of the corresponding switch.

The transmitting circuit may control the transducer array to transmit the first acoustic wave beam and/or the second acoustic wave beam in various manners, and may specifically be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In one embodiment, phased transmission techniques are not required in cases where the transmitted acoustic wave beam is not required to be always perpendicular to the ground. In this case, all transducers in the transducer array are connected in parallel, and the transmitting circuit drives all transducers simultaneously to transmit the acoustic wave beams, and the first acoustic wave beam and/or the second acoustic wave beam perpendicular to the transducer array are transmitted by means of the natural directivity of the transducer array.

In another embodiment, when the platform is sailing, the attitude adjustment range is large, the adjustment frequency is high, and in order to improve the detection precision, the emitted sound wave beam is required to be always vertical to the ground, and a phased emission technology is required to be used. In this case, when the number of transducers is large, if independent driving control is performed for each transducer, a large scale of a transmitting circuit and a complicated circuit will be caused, and since the difference in driving circuits of different transducers will greatly affect the accuracy of phase difference control between transducers, the transducers in the transducer array are divided into multi-stage subarrays, and the total directivity of the array is equal to the product of directivities of its respective stages.

Specifically, according to the requirement of the emission directivity, corresponding transducers in the first transducer array are combined in series and/or in parallel, the first transducer array is decomposed into multi-stage subarrays, the cascade directivity of the multi-stage subarrays meets the requirement of the emission directivity, and the requirement of phased emission can be met only by controlling the main maximum direction of the highest-stage subarray to point to the first direction during emission, so that a first sound wave beam is formed. The highest level subarray generally contains a smaller number of transducers, so that the purpose of simplifying a transmitting circuit can be achieved.

And similarly, corresponding transducers in the second transducer array are combined in series and/or in parallel, the second transducer array is decomposed into multi-stage subarrays, the cascade directivity of the multi-stage subarrays meets the requirement of transmitting directivity, and the requirement of phased transmission can be met only by controlling the main maximum direction of the highest-stage subarrays to point to the second direction during transmitting, so that a second sound wave beam is formed.

More specifically, the transmitting circuit is specifically configured to: taking the first transducer array or the second transducer array as a target transducer array, and connecting the same row of transducers in the target transducer array along the first reference direction in parallel to form an array element to obtain a plurality of array elements along the second reference direction; grouping the array elements to obtain at least two stages of subarrays, wherein the distances between adjacent array elements in the same stage of subarrays are equal; determining a first phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays based on the distance between adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays and a first reference direction; and based on the first phase delay amount, sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays to transmit the sound wave beams so as to form the sound wave beams in the first reference direction. If the target transducer array is a first transducer array, the first reference direction is a first direction, and the second reference direction is a second direction; if the target transducer array is a second transducer array, the first reference direction is a second direction, and the second reference direction is the first direction.

For ease of understanding, the process of the transmitting circuit driving the first transducer array for phased transmission will be described below with reference to fig. 7 and 8. As shown in fig. 7, the same row of transducers in the first transducer array along the first direction are connected in parallel to form an array element, so as to obtain a plurality of array elements in the second direction; then, grouping a plurality of array elements, and connecting the same group of array elements in series and connecting different groups of array elements in parallel so as to form at least two stages of subarrays.

As an example, as shown in fig. 8, the distance d between adjacent array elements in the first transducer (i.e. black filled circles in fig. 8) is half wavelength, if the first transducer array is to be driven to emit the first acoustic wave beam shown in fig. 2 to the water area, a first-stage subarray is formed by extracting part of array elements with a spacing of 4d from the plurality of array elements, a second-stage subarray is formed by continuously extracting every other first-stage subarray from the first-stage subarray, the distance between the array elements of the second-stage subarray is 2d, and the distance between two adjacent second-stage subarrays is d. Further, based on the distance between the adjacent array elements in the first-stage subarray, the distance between the adjacent array elements in the second-stage subarray and the first direction, the first phase delay amount of the second-stage subarray relative to the first-stage subarray is determined to be pi, and after the first-stage subarray is controlled to transmit the sound wave beam, the second-stage subarray is controlled to transmit the sound wave beam based on the first phase delay amount, so that the first sound wave beam shown in fig. 2 is formed.

In this embodiment of the present application, the receiving circuit may have any suitable number, and may specifically be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. As an example, if the transducer array is the transducer array shown in fig. 5, the number of the receiving circuits is two, as shown in fig. 4, and the receiving circuit includes a first receiving circuit and a second receiving circuit, where the first receiving circuit is used to drive the first transducer array to receive the second echo beam, and the second receiving circuit is used to drive the second transducer array to receive the first echo beam; if the transducer array is the one shown in fig. 6 (a), the number of receiving circuits is one.

The receiving circuit may also have any suitable structure, and may be specifically set according to actual requirements, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. As an example, the receiving circuit may comprise a receiving control unit and a number of switches equal to the number of transducers in the transducer array, i.e. each switch has a corresponding transducer and each switch is connected in parallel with its corresponding transducer. In this way, the receiving control unit can select the needed transducer to receive the wave beam by controlling the on or off of the corresponding switch.

The receiving circuit may control the transducer array to receive the first echo beam and/or the second echo beam in various manners, and may specifically be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In an embodiment, for the second transducer array, since the receiving circuit has more acquisition channels in the horizontal direction, the angular resolution after beamforming is higher, and beamforming of different angles in a wide scanning range can be satisfied, so that the existing phased receiving technology can be adopted without modification.

In another embodiment, in order to obtain an echo beam having a specific angle in the first direction or the second direction, for example, the speed measurement requirement can be met by only receiving one echo beam in the +30° or-30 ° direction, or the cascade directivity of the multistage subarrays can be met by dividing the transducers in the transducer array into the multistage subarrays.

Specifically, according to the receiving directivity requirement, corresponding transducers in the second transducer array are combined in series and/or in parallel, the second transducer array is decomposed into multi-stage subarrays, the cascade directivity of the multi-stage subarrays meets the receiving directivity requirement, and when receiving, the requirement of phased receiving can be met only by controlling the main maximum direction of the highest-stage subarray to point to the second direction, so that a first echo wave beam is formed. The purpose of simplifying the receiving circuit can be achieved through the receiving mode of the grading subarrays, so that the requirement of speed measurement can be met by only making a small amount of change on the basis of the original multi-beam sounding circuit.

Similarly, corresponding transducers in the first transducer array are combined in series and/or in parallel, the first transducer array is decomposed into multiple stages of subarrays, the cascade directivity of the multiple stages of subarrays meets the receiving directivity requirement, and the requirement of phased emission can be met only by controlling the main maximum direction of the highest stage of subarrays to point to the first direction during receiving, so that a second echo wave beam is formed.

More specifically, the receiving circuit is specifically configured to: determining a second phase delay amount between each level of subarrays based on the distance between adjacent array elements in each level of subarrays of the target transducer array and a second reference direction; and based on the second phase delay amount, sequentially controlling each level of subarrays to carry out echo beam reception so as to form an echo beam in a second reference direction.

For ease of understanding, the process of the receiving circuit driving the first transducer array for phased reception will be described below with reference to fig. 9 and 10. As shown in fig. 9, the same row of transducers in the first transducer array along the first direction are connected in parallel to form an array element, so as to obtain a plurality of array elements in the second direction; then, grouping a plurality of array elements, and connecting the same group of array elements in series and connecting different groups of array elements in parallel so as to form at least two stages of subarrays.

As an example, as shown in fig. 10, the distance d between adjacent array elements in the first transducer array is half-wavelength, if the first transducer is to be driven to receive the second echo beam shown in fig. 2, a part of array elements with a distance of 4d is extracted from the plurality of array elements to form a first-stage subarray, every other first-stage subarray is continuously extracted from the first-stage subarray to form a second-stage subarray, the distance d between the array elements of the second-stage subarray is 2d, and the distance d between two adjacent second-stage subarrays is equal to d. Further, based on the distance between adjacent array elements in the first-stage subarray, the distance between adjacent array elements in the second-stage subarray and the second direction, determining that the second phase delay amount of the second-stage subarray relative to the first-stage subarray is pi, controlling the first-stage subarray to receive echo beams, controlling the second-stage subarray to receive echo beams based on the first phase delay amount, amplifying and filtering the output of the second-stage subarray, acquiring through AD (analog-to-digital) after preprocessing, and performing four-array element beam formation on acquired digital signals to obtain two echo beams at +30 DEG and-30 DEG, namely echo beam 1 and echo beam 2.

In practical application, under the condition that the sounding function and the speed measuring function are alternately started, the receiving circuit is specifically used for: after the sounding function is started, determining a second phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays of the second transducer array based on the distance and a second direction of adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays of the second transducer array, and sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays of the second transducer array to sequentially perform echo beam receiving based on the determined second phase delay amount so as to form a first echo beam; after the speed measuring function is started, determining a second phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array based on the distance and the first direction of adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array, and sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array to sequentially receive echo beams based on the determined second phase delay amount so as to form a second echo beam.

Under the condition that the sounding function and the speed measuring function are simultaneously started, the receiving circuit is specifically used for: determining a second phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array based on the distance between adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array and the first direction, and sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array to sequentially perform echo beam reception based on the determined second phase delay amount so as to form a second echo beam; and driving each subarray in the second transducer array to receive all echo beams formed after the first sound wave beams are reflected, and carrying out multichannel data acquisition on the received echo beams based on the direction information of the second direction to obtain the first echo beams.

Therefore, under the condition that the sounding function and the speed measuring function are simultaneously started, the mode that the receiving circuit drives the first transducer array to carry out beam receiving under the two functions is the same, but when the receiving circuit drives the second transducer array to carry out beam receiving, multichannel data acquisition is carried out according to the sounding mode, echo beam forming is carried out in a program, the sounding function is realized, and meanwhile, the echo beam with a specific angle is selected to carry out speed measuring in the horizontal direction, but the specific echo beam is formed by utilizing the hardware selection circuit.

In this embodiment of the present application, the controller may control the operation of the transmitting circuit and the receiving circuit by any suitable manner, and may specifically be selected according to actual needs, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. In an embodiment, the controller may alternately turn on the sounding function and the speed measuring function based on a preset refresh rate to alternately perform sounding and speed measuring. For example, the sounding function is turned on in the first frame, the speed measurement function is turned on in the second frame, the sounding function is turned on in the third frame, and so on.

In another embodiment, the controller may simultaneously turn on the sounding function and the speed measuring function to simultaneously perform sounding and speed measurement.

In this embodiment of the present application, the controller may adopt various methods for resolving water depth commonly used in the art, and perform the resolving water depth based on the first acoustic wave beam and the first echo beam, for example, estimate the Time of Arrival (TOA) and the direction of Arrival (Direction of Arrival, DOA) by a bottom detection method, and further perform the resolving water depth based on the TOA and the DOA, which will not be described herein.

In this embodiment of the present application, the controller may perform the speed calculation in any suitable manner, and may specifically be selected according to actual needs, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In one embodiment, the controller is specifically configured to: performing complex correlation frequency measurement processing based on the first acoustic wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second acoustic wave beam and the second echo wave beam to obtain Doppler frequency offset; and calculating the navigation speed of the carrying platform based on the Doppler frequency offset.

More specifically, after the first acoustic wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second acoustic wave beam and the second echo wave beam are processed through a bottom searching algorithm and a bottom tracking algorithm, corresponding depth data are obtained, and further complex correlation frequency measurement processing is carried out on the depth data, so that Doppler frequency offset is obtained; and calculating the navigation speed of the carrying platform based on the Doppler frequency offset.

It should be noted that, the bottom search algorithm, the bottom tracking algorithm, the complex correlation frequency measurement processing and the doppler frequency offset-based velocity calculation algorithm may all be various algorithms commonly used in the art, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

For example, when the correlation processing is performed based on the bottom search algorithm, the search subroutine completes the function of bottom search, the search pulse width is divided into 0.05ms, 0.1ms, 1ms, 2ms, 5ms, 10ms and 20ms, the multi-beam detection system starts searching from the pulse width of 0.05ms, and if three continuous searches are not bottom, the pulse width is changed to 0.1ms in sequence; if the search is not yet performed, the search is performed by sequentially modifying to 1ms, 5ms, 10ms and 20 ms; if the pulse width of 20ms is not searched, starting a new search from 0.05ms again; when the bottom echo wave beam is judged to be effective in the searching mode, judging whether the bottom echo wave beam is effective in three continuous searching times, and if the bottom echo wave beam is effective in three continuous searching times, converting the working mode into a bottom tracking mode.

And when the correlation processing is carried out based on the bottom tracking algorithm, the depth and the speed are calculated according to the time delay information, the Doppler frequency offset and the validity information. And judging the effectiveness at the same time when the depth and the speed are calculated, judging whether the received echo wave beam is effective, judging whether the current working mode is still effective according to the effective number of the echo wave beams, and if the next working period is continuously in the bottom tracking mode, adjusting the working pulse width and the data processing starting position of the next period according to the current working water depth by a program. If no signal is detected several times in succession, the algorithm switches from the bottom tracking mode to the bottom searching mode, and the processing procedure based on the bottom searching algorithm is repeated.

When the speed is calculated based on the Doppler frequency offset, the relation between the Doppler frequency offset and the navigational speed is as follows:

wherein:for transmitting frequency ，/>For the speed of the platform in the first direction, < > for the navigation of the platform in the first direction>For the angle between the array beam pointing and the plumb line, +.>Is sound speed in water, is>Is Doppler frequency offset.

When using phased array element spacing asWhen forming->In the case of directional beams, the phase between the array elements is compensated>The method comprises the following steps:

thus there is. Thus, as long as it remains #>Unchanged, then- >Always constant, then->. After obtaining the navigation speed of the carrying platform, the current sound speed can be further obtained: />. Therefore, the sound velocity can be used for depth value calculation in multi-beam sounding without additionally installing a sound velocity sensor.

In practical application, the controller can perform sounding control and speed measurement control in various modes. In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 11, a user may set parameters of the multi-beam sounding system, such as setting a refresh rate, a transmission frequency, etc., and select a sounding function and a speed measurement function. The controller opens the corresponding function in response to a function selection operation by the user.

When a user only selects the sounding function, the controller starts the sounding function, the transmitting circuit drives the first transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam to the water area, and the receiving circuit drives the second transducer array to receive a first echo wave beam; then, the controller processes the first sound wave beam and the first echo wave beam based on a bottom detection algorithm, estimates TOA and DOA, and further carries out water depth calculation based on the TOA and the DOA to obtain water depth information of the water area.

When a user only selects the speed measuring function, the controller starts the speed measuring function, the transmitting circuit drives the first transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam to the water area and drives the second transducer array to transmit a second sound wave beam to the water area, and the receiving circuit drives the second transducer array to receive the first echo wave beam and drives the first transducer array to receive the second echo wave beam; then, the controller sequentially performs bottom search, bottom tracking, complex correlation frequency measurement, speed calculation and the like on the first acoustic wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second acoustic wave beam and the second echo wave beam to obtain the navigation speed of the carrying platform.

When the user selects the speed measuring function and the depth measuring function simultaneously, the controller can start the depth measuring function and the speed measuring function simultaneously. Alternatively, the controller may alternatively start the sounding function and the speed measuring function based on the refresh rate set by the user, and if the sounding function is started in the current frame, perform the water depth calculation based on the sounding process flow to obtain the water depth information of the current frame; if the current frame starts the speed measuring function, speed calculation is carried out based on the speed measuring processing flow, and the navigation speed of the current frame is obtained.

The multi-beam detection system provided by the embodiment of the application uses a set of transducer arrays with beam receiving and transmitting functions, and designs a set of corresponding transmitting circuits, receiving circuits and controllers; when depth measurement is needed, a transmitting circuit is used for driving a transducer array to transmit a first sound wave beam in a first direction to a measured water area, a receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive a first echo beam which is formed by reflecting the first sound wave beam and is perpendicular to the first direction (namely a second direction), and then a controller is used for carrying out water depth calculation based on the first sound wave beam and the first echo beam, so that the depth measurement function is realized; when the speed measurement is needed, the transmitting circuit is used for driving the transducer array to transmit a second sound wave beam in a second direction to the measured water area, the receiving circuit is used for driving the transducer array to receive a second echo wave beam in a first direction, which is formed after the second sound wave beam is reflected, and then the controller is used for carrying out speed calculation based on the sound wave beams in two directions and the echo wave beams in two directions, so that the speed measurement function is realized. Therefore, the multi-beam detection system provided by the embodiment of the application can realize the sounding function and the speed measurement function by only using one set of transducer array and hardware equipment, and does not need to be provided with Doppler speed measurement sonar at the same time, so that the use cost of a user is reduced, the sounding precision and the speed measurement precision are provided, the internal space of a carrying platform is saved, the weight of the carrying platform is reduced, more effective loads are increased on the carrying platform, and the design and the use difficulty of the carrying platform are reduced.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiments of the present application also provide a multi-beam detection method, which can be applied to a controller of a multi-beam detection system. Referring to fig. 12, a flow chart of a multi-beam detection method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, and the method includes the following steps:

s1202, in the process that the carrying platform sails in the target water area, a first sound wave beam in a first direction is emitted to the target water area through the transducer array, and a first echo wave beam in a second direction is received through the transducer array.

The first echo wave beam is formed by reflecting a first sound wave beam, and the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction.

And S1204, transmitting a second acoustic wave beam in a second direction to the target water area through the transducer array, and receiving the second echo wave beam in the first direction through the transducer array.

The second echo wave beam is formed after the second echo wave beam is reflected.

S1206, determining water depth information of the target water area based on the first acoustic wave beam and the first echo beam.

S1208, determining a voyage speed of the loading platform based on the first acoustic wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second acoustic wave beam, and the second echo wave beam.

The specific implementation manners of the above steps are similar to the specific implementation manners of the corresponding functions in the controller in the multi-beam detection system, and will not be repeated.

The foregoing describes specific embodiments of the present disclosure. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions or steps recited in the claims can be performed in a different order than in the embodiments and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In some embodiments, multitasking and parallel processing are also possible or may be advantageous.

In summary, the foregoing description is only a preferred embodiment of the present application, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present application should be included in the protection scope of the present application.

The system, apparatus, module or unit set forth in the above embodiments may be implemented in particular by a computer chip or entity, or by a product having a certain function. One typical implementation is a computer. In particular, the computer may be, for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a cellular telephone, a camera phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant, a media player, a navigation device, an email device, a game console, a tablet computer, a wearable device, or a combination of any of these devices.

Computer readable media, including both non-transitory and non-transitory, removable and non-removable media, may implement information storage by any method or technology. The information may be computer readable instructions, data structures, modules of a program, or other data. Examples of storage media for a computer include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), other types of Random Access Memory (RAM), read Only Memory (ROM), electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), digital Versatile Discs (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium, which can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. Computer-readable media, as defined herein, does not include transitory computer-readable media (transmission media), such as modulated data signals and carrier waves.

It should also be noted that the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article or apparatus that comprises the element.

In this specification, each embodiment is described in a progressive manner, and identical and similar parts of each embodiment are all referred to each other, and each embodiment mainly describes differences from other embodiments. In particular, for system embodiments, since they are substantially similar to method embodiments, the description is relatively simple, as relevant to see a section of the description of method embodiments.

Claims

1. The multi-beam detection system is characterized by being arranged on a carrying platform, and comprises a transducer array, a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit and a controller;

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transducer array comprises a first transducer array and a second transducer array;

the transducers in the first transducer array are arranged in a rectangular array, and the number of the transducers in the first direction is smaller than that of the transducers in the second direction; the first transducer array is used for transmitting the first sound wave beam under the drive of the transmitting circuit and receiving the second echo beam under the drive of the receiving circuit;

the transducers in the second transducer array are arranged in a rectangular array, and the number of the transducers along the first direction is larger than that of the transducers along the second direction; the second transducer array is used for transmitting the second acoustic wave beam under the drive of the transmitting circuit and receiving the first echo wave beam under the drive of the receiving circuit.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the transducers in the first transducer array are in an arcuate array in the first direction and in a linear array in the second direction; and/or the number of the groups of groups,

the transducers in the second transducer array are in a linear array in the first direction and in an arc or linear array in the second direction.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the transducer array comprises a plurality of transducers arranged in a circular array;

the transmitting circuit is used for starting partial transducers which are arranged in a first rectangular array from the plurality of transducers to form a first transducer array, starting partial transducers which are arranged in a second rectangular array to form a second transducer array, driving the first transducer array to transmit the first sound wave beam to the water area after the sounding function is started, and driving the second transducer array to transmit the second sound wave beam to the water area after the sounding function is started;

the receiving circuit is used for driving the second transducer array to receive the first echo wave beam after the sounding function is started, and driving the first transducer array to receive the second echo wave beam after the sounding function is started;

Wherein the number of transducers in the first direction in the first transducer array is less than the number of transducers in the second direction; the number of transducers in the first direction in the second transducer array is greater than the number of transducers in the second direction.

5. The system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the transmitting circuit is specifically configured to:

taking the first transducer array or the second transducer array as a target transducer array, and connecting the same row of transducers in the target transducer array along a first reference direction in parallel to form an array element to obtain a plurality of array elements along a second reference direction;

grouping the array elements to obtain at least two stages of subarrays, wherein the distances between adjacent array elements in the same stage of subarrays are equal;

determining a first phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays based on the distance between adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays and the first reference direction;

sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays to transmit sound wave beams based on the first phase delay amount so as to form sound wave beams in the first reference direction;

if the target transducer array is the first transducer array, the first reference direction is the first direction, and the second reference direction is the second direction; and if the target transducer array is the second transducer array, the first reference direction is the second direction, and the second reference direction is the first direction.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the receiving circuit is specifically configured to:

determining a second phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays based on the distance between adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays of the target transducer array and the second reference direction;

and based on the second phase delay amount, sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays to receive echo beams so as to form echo beams in the second reference direction.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the controller is further configured to alternately turn on the sounding function and the speed measurement function based on a preset refresh rate;

the receiving circuit is specifically configured to:

after the sounding function is started, determining a second phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays of the second transducer array based on the distance between adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays of the second transducer array and the second direction, and sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays of the second transducer array to sequentially perform echo beam reception based on the determined second phase delay amount so as to form the first echo beam;

after the speed measuring function is started, determining a second phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array based on the distance between adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array and the first direction, and sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array to sequentially receive echo beams based on the determined second phase delay amount so as to form the second echo beam.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the controller is further configured to simultaneously activate the depth measurement function and the speed measurement function;

the receiving circuit is specifically configured to:

determining a second phase delay amount between all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array based on the distance between adjacent array elements in all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array and the first direction, and sequentially controlling all levels of subarrays of the first transducer array to sequentially perform echo beam reception based on the determined second phase delay amount so as to form the second echo beam;

and driving each subarray in the second transducer array to receive all echo beams formed after the first sound wave beams are reflected, and carrying out multichannel data acquisition on the received echo beams based on the direction information of the second direction to obtain the first echo beams.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is specifically configured to:

performing complex correlation frequency measurement processing based on the first acoustic wave beam, the first echo wave beam, the second acoustic wave beam and the second echo wave beam to obtain Doppler frequency offset;

And calculating the navigation speed of the carrying platform based on the Doppler frequency offset.

10. A multi-wavelength detection method, comprising: