JP2019124703A - Echo-sounding device and multi-beam echo-sounding device - Google Patents

Abstract

To correct fluctuations, such as those caused by waves, with respect to a marine vessel, without using an acceleration sensor.SOLUTION: Provided is an echo-sounding device which is installed on a mobile body, such as a vessel, to detect a measuring object in the water, and whose depth changes with fluctuations in a vertical direction. The echo-sounding device includes: a transmission signal forming part having a pseudo noise sequence generating circuit for forming a pseudo noise sequence signal, and a modulation signal for forming a transmission signal by modulating a carrier wave signal using the pseudo noise sequence signal of a transmission timing; a transmitting part which periodically transmits the transmission signal, as ultrasound, toward a measuring object located below the mobile body; a receiving part which receives an echo of the ultrasound transmitted from the transmitting part; a correlator which discriminates the echo corresponding to the transmission signal by applying correlation processing to the echo using the pseudo noise sequence signal, and acquires depth raw data from a time difference between the transmission signal and the echo; and a fluctuation correcting part which suppresses a fluctuation constituent by subjecting the depth raw data to fluctuation correction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 33

Description

  The present invention relates to an echo sounder and multi-beam echo sounder which measure depth using ultrasonic waves propagating in water.

  Acoustic sounding technology in the ocean has been used for a long time, and as shown in Fig. 1, ultrasonic pulses are emitted from an ultrasonic transducer, and the echo of the acoustic wave reflected from the target (seafloor) is captured, The depth of the sound wave is measured using the propagation velocity of the sound wave (approximately 1500 m / s). Sound sounding devices using this principle have been commercialized for more than 50 years, and even today, the seafloor depth measurement is performed using this principle. The technique called echolocation has been used without change, in other words without development.

  The principle is that an ultrasonic pulse (for example, 1 ms pulse width) is emitted, and if it is a seabed of 500 m and a reciprocating distance of 1000 m is 1500 m / s of sound velocity underwater, 1000 / Vu = 1000/1500 = 0.667 seconds After receiving the echo, it emits an ultrasonic pulse again, and at the same time measures the seabed depth at different locations as the ship advances. In this way, the depth of the seabed is measured sequentially as the ship travels, and it is displayed on a liquid crystal screen as a recording paper or an image, which is called a sound sounding device (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  So far, sound sounding devices have performed sounding by controlling the transmission interval so that the next transmission is not performed before the reception echo in consideration of the sound velocity of ultrasonic waves in water. As shown in FIG. 2, a sounding apparatus having only one beam is called a single-beam sounding apparatus, and one having a plurality of beams spreading in a fan-shaped form that has appeared in recent years is called a multi-beam sounding apparatus (see, for example, Patent Document 2). Multi-beam sounding instruments can measure a wide range of depths at a relatively high density at one time.

  Assuming that the depth is D and the transmission interval of transmission pulses is T, and (2D / 1500) <T, as shown in FIG. 3A, the time difference between the transmission pulse and the reception echo corresponds to (2D / 1500), The depth can be measured from this time difference. However, in the case of (2D / 1500) ≧ T, as shown in FIG. 3B, since the reception echo comes after the transmission of the next transmission pulse, it is impossible to know which transmission pulse the reception echo corresponds to. The wrong depth will be measured based on the time difference FD. Therefore, conventionally, the condition of (2D / 1500) <T was required.

The inability to shorten the transmission period means that the horizontal resolution of sounding can not be reduced. The resolution of measurement in the traveling direction (horizontal direction) of the ship will be described with reference to FIG. The horizontal resolution ΔH (m) in the case of measuring the depth D (m) at the ship speed V (m / s) is expressed by the following equation.
ΔH = VT> 2DV / 1500

  For example, when the ship travels at 10 kt (10 x 1.852 km / hr) and the transmission period is 1 second, the sounding data can be obtained only about every 5 m. In order to measure the seabed at a depth of 1,000 m, it can not be measured unless the transmission cycle T is (1,000 × 2) /1,500=1.33 seconds, but 1.33 if the ship sails at 10 kt Since it advances 6.7 m after a second, the resolution ΔH of the measurement is 6.67 m. Multi-beam sounding devices can measure a wide range of depths at one time, but the resolution of the measurement of the ship's heading is similar to that of a single beam.

  In conventional sound sounding devices, there was no other way but to reduce the speed of the ship to increase the resolution of the measurement. Therefore, the conventional sounding apparatus has a problem that the time required for sounding becomes long when the resolution of sounding is increased.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, when the bottom of the sea is surveyed by sound waves, the depth of measurement upon receiving wave motion relative to the reference sea level may be deeper or shallower than the true bottom. The seabed depth obtained by the measurement is as shown in FIG. 6, and the distance to the true seabed can not be measured. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to detect the motion component and correct the motion.

  As described above, in the conventional echo sounder, the transmission period can not be shortened, and the transmission period is longer or almost equal to the oscillation period of the wave, so the oscillation due to the influence of the wave is detected and the oscillation is generated. It was difficult to correct. According to the sampling theorem, it is impossible to detect the oscillation component unless sampling is performed at a frequency twice or more the maximum value of the oscillation frequency component. Therefore, in the case of correcting the movement, it has been the conventional practice to detect the rotation angles and displacement amounts of the three axes and perform the movement correction according to the detection result as disclosed in Patent Document 3.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-083247 Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2006-220436 JP, 2010-025739, A

  An acceleration sensor is used to detect the amount of displacement of the movement. The velocity is determined by integrating the acceleration once, and the amount of displacement is determined by integrating the velocity. The motion detection using such an acceleration sensor has a problem that an error occurs and it is necessary to correct the error. Furthermore, there is a problem that an acceleration sensor is required, resulting in an increase in cost.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an echo sounding system and multi-beam echo sounding system capable of performing motion correction using received signals without using an acceleration sensor.

The present invention relates to an acoustic sounding apparatus which is installed on a moving object such as a ship, detects an object to be measured in water, and whose depth changes due to vertical oscillation.
A transmission signal formation unit having a pseudo noise sequence generation circuit that generates a pseudo noise sequence signal, and a modulation circuit that modulates a carrier signal by a pseudo noise sequence signal of transmission timing to form a transmission signal;
A transmitting unit that periodically transmits a transmission signal as an ultrasonic wave toward a measurement target located below the moving body;
A receiving unit for receiving an echo of the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the transmitting unit;
A correlator that determines echoes corresponding to transmission signals by correlating the echoes with pseudo noise sequence signals, and acquires raw depth data based on the time difference between the transmission signals and the echoes;
A motion correction unit that suppresses motion components by performing motion correction on depth raw data;
A display and / or recording device to which the output of the motion compensation unit is supplied;
The period of the transmission signal is set to (2D / Vu) or less when the velocity of the sound wave in the water is Vu and the depth is D, and the sound made to satisfy the sampling theorem compared with the period of the motion component It is a sounding device.
The present invention is also directed to a multi-beam echo sounding system installed on a moving object such as a ship and detecting a measurement object in the water, the depth of which changes due to vertical movement.
A transmission signal formation unit having a pseudo noise sequence generation circuit that generates a pseudo noise sequence signal, and a modulation circuit that modulates a carrier signal by a pseudo noise sequence signal of transmission timing to form a transmission signal;
A transmitting unit that periodically transmits a transmission signal as an ultrasonic wave toward a measurement target located below the moving body;
A receiving unit for receiving an echo of the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the transmitting unit;
A correlator that determines echoes corresponding to transmission signals by correlating the echoes with pseudo noise sequence signals, and acquires raw depth data based on the time difference between the transmission signals and the echoes;
A motion correction unit that suppresses motion components by performing motion correction on depth raw data;
A display and / or recording device to which the output of the motion compensation unit is supplied;
Assuming that the velocity of the sound wave in the water is Vu and the depth is D, the period of the transmission signal is less than (2D / Vu), and the sampling theorem is satisfied compared to the period of the motion component.
It is a multi-beam echosounder that transmits multiple ultrasonic beams in a fan-like manner by a transmitter.

  According to the present invention, since the transmission cycle can be shortened, the resolution in the horizontal direction can be increased. For example, the fluctuation component due to waves can be accurately detected, and the detected fluctuation component is used. Upset correction can be performed. Since the acceleration sensor is not used, the cost increase can be prevented and the influence of the error can be reduced. Note that the effects described herein are not necessarily limited, and any of the effects described herein may be used.

It is a basic diagram which shows the principle of sound sounding. It is a basic diagram for demonstrating single beam sounding and multi-beam sounding. It is a wave form diagram used for explanation of the conventional sound echo sounding device. It is a basic diagram used for explanation of horizontal direction resolution of the conventional sounding instrument. It is a basic diagram for explaining the oscillation by a wave. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the influence of the fluctuation by a wave. It is a block diagram showing composition of an example of an echo sounding device. It is a block diagram used for description of the correlator in an echo sounding device. It is a wave form diagram used for description of the output of a correlator. It is a basic diagram explaining the case where a received signal is displayed. It is a wave form diagram which shows an example of the modulation method of a transmission signal. It is a wave form diagram used for explanation of a sound sounding device. It is a basic diagram used for explanation of horizontal direction resolution of a sound sounding device. It is a wave form diagram used for explanation of a sound sounding device. It is a basic diagram used for explanation of horizontal direction resolution of a sound sounding device. It is a basic diagram which uses the result of simulation of a sound sounding device for explanation. It is a basic diagram which uses the result of simulation of the improved sounding instrument for explanation. It is a basic diagram which compares and shows the display image by the conventional echosounding device, and the display image by the improved echosounding device. It is a wave form diagram of an example of a transmitting signal of an echo sounding device. It is a wave form diagram used for description when two gold code signals overlap in an echo sounding device. It is a basic diagram for explaining the principle of opening synthetic side scan sonar. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the directional characteristic of aperture synthetic | combination. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the principle of aperture synthetic | combination. It is a basic diagram which shows an example of a point target. It is a basic diagram which shows the image of an example of a point target. It is a basic diagram which shows the image before opening synthetic | combination of an example of a point target, and the image after opening synthetic | combination. It is a basic diagram which shows the image before opening synthetic | combination of an example of a point target, and the image after opening synthetic | combination. It is a basic diagram which shows the image before opening synthetic | combination of an example of a two-point target, and the image after opening synthetic | combination. It is a schematic diagram used for description of a multi-beam echo sounder. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a multi-beam echo sounder. It is a basic diagram used for explanation of oscillation by waves. It is a schematic diagram which shows the seabed by which the motion correction was carried out. It is a flowchart for demonstrating an example of the motion compensation in one embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating an example of the motion compensation in one embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram for demonstrating the other example of the motion compensation in one embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram for demonstrating the other example of the motion compensation in one embodiment of this invention. It is a basic diagram which shows the data before shaking correction, and the data after shaking correction. It is a block diagram for demonstrating the further another example of the motion compensation in one embodiment of this invention. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram for describing another embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram for describing other embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. The embodiments described below are preferable specific examples of the present invention, and various technically preferable limitations are added. However, the scope of the present invention is particularly preferable in the following description. The embodiments are not limited to these embodiments unless otherwise stated.
The description of the invention will be made in the following order.
<1. Improved sound sounder>
<2. Opening synthesis>
<3. Multi-beam echo sounder>
<4. One embodiment>
<5. Other Embodiments>
<6. Application example>
<7. Modified example>

<1. Improved sound sounder>
When motion correction is performed on a wave, the motion component can be detected by stopping the ship at sea and detecting a change in water depth due to the ship moving up and down by the wave. Then, the motion compensation can be performed by canceling the motion component detected from the measurement result of sounding. Thus, since the detection of the motion component can be done by sound sounding, the following description will first describe an improved sounding apparatus that allows measuring the depth with a short transmission period and then the motion The correction will be described.

  FIG. 7 shows the electrical configuration of the improved echosounder. A transmission trigger generator 1 is provided which generates a transmission trigger pulse of a pulse signal of a constant period, and the transmission trigger pulse is supplied to a gold code generator 2 as a PN sequence generator and a display or recording device 10. The display and / or recording device 10 includes a display device such as liquid crystal and / or a recording device such as a semiconductor memory and an arithmetic device for display or recording.

The gold code generator 2 generates a gold code in synchronization with the transmission trigger pulse. A pseudorandom noise (PN) series such as an M series other than the gold code may be used. The gold code is supplied to the pulse modulator 3, and the gold code is digitally modulated by, for example, BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying). Carrier frequency is several kHz to several hundreds kH
It is assumed that z.

  An output signal of the pulse modulator 3 is supplied to the transmission amplifier 4, and processing such as amplification is performed in the transmission amplifier 4. The output signal of the transmission amplifier 4 is supplied to the transmitter 5. Ultrasonic waves are transmitted from the transmitter 5 to water. The echo of the emitted underwater ultrasonic wave is received by the receiver 6. The transmitter 5 and the receiver 6 may use an integral structure.

  The wave reception data from the wave receiver 6 is supplied to the reception amplifier 7, and after being subjected to processing such as amplification, is supplied to the correlator 8. The output of the correlator 8 is supplied to the detection circuit 9. Correlator 8 extracts the received echo corresponding to the transmitted pulse. The detection circuit 9 performs an operation (eg, A / D conversion) for display. The output of the detection circuit 9 is supplied to the display and / or recording device 10, and the time until the echo is received for the transmission pulse is displayed and / or recorded, respectively.

  FIG. 8 shows the process of correlation detection. The received echo signal is serially input to the 4064-step shift register SR. Preferably, the SN ratio is improved by, for example, adding a plurality of reception echo signals before and after to the shift register SR. The addition process can reduce noise and enable a low transmission output, thereby enabling downsizing of the device and power saving design. The shift clock for operating the shift register SR is (20 × 8 = 1, 600 kHz = 1.6 MHz). This frequency is an example, and it is possible to use a shift clock having a frequency twice or more that of the carrier frequency (20 kHz). The reception echo signal is sampled at a frequency eight times that of the carrier signal by being supplied to the shift register SR.

  Operation circuits EXA1 to EX127 are provided in parallel with shift register SR. Each of the arithmetic circuits EXA1 to EX127 is composed of an exclusive OR circuit and an adder circuit (4064 circuit). The 4064 bits of the shift register SR are commonly supplied to the exclusive OR circuits of the arithmetic circuits EXA1 to EX127.

On the other hand, the replica of the code G1 of the gold code (replica is 4064 bits), the replica of the code G2,..., The replica of the code G127 are respectively supplied to the exclusive OR circuits of the arithmetic circuits EXA1 to EX127. . In the exclusive OR circuit, the output is "0" if the bits of the two inputs have the same value, and the output is "1" if the bits of the two inputs are different values. The output of 4064 bits of each exclusive OR circuit is added. The addition is to output a signal with an amplitude of N if the number of "1" s is N. By taking a negative logic, an output with a larger value is obtained as the two inputs match. The addition outputs of the arithmetic circuits EXA1 to EX127 are as shown in FIG. The large amplitude output indicates a received echo signal that matches the gold code of the transmitted pulse.

  FIG. 10 illustrates the case of displaying on the display and / or recording device 10. A transmission trigger pulse is supplied to the display and / or recording device 10, and the timing of the transmission trigger pulse is displayed as a transmission line (0 m) on the upper side of the screen. The detection signal from the detection circuit 9 with respect to the transmission trigger pulse is displayed, for example, with a color. Since the transmission trigger pulse is a fast repeating signal of several Hz to several tens Hz, the detection signal corresponding to each of the transmission trigger pulses from the correlator 8 is displayed in order to compare with the conventional sounding sound system Then, a sounding image will appear at a speed several times to several tens of times.

  FIG. 11 illustrates an example of pulse modulation. For example, every four cycles (four waves) of a carrier of 200 kHz, the phase is switched to 0 and π corresponding to “0” and “1” of the bits of the gold code. The frequency of the carrier wave is an example, and may be another frequency, and a modulation scheme such as QPSK other than BPSK may be used. Furthermore, not only phase modulation but amplitude modulation may be used.

  Correlation detection is performed by digital signal processing in the correlator 8. One bit consists of 4 cycles, and each cycle is digitized by 8 samples. Therefore, if the code of the Gold code is 127 bits, one received echo signal is (127 × 4 × 8 = 4064 bits).

  In the above-described improved acoustic measurement device, the transmitted signal and the received echo signal (bottom echo) can be identified. As shown in FIG. 12, the transmission signal A and the transmission signal B have different gold codes. A receive echo signal corresponding to transmit signal A may be received after transmit signal B to identify that the receive echo signal corresponds to transmit A. Therefore, the restriction ((2D / 1500) <T) on the transmission cycle T as in the prior art can be eliminated.

In the improved acoustic measurement device, the horizontal resolution is as follows:
ΔH = VT

  For example, if the ship sails at 10 kt (10 x 1.852 km / h) and the transmission period is 0.1 seconds, then ΔH = 0.5 m, and the horizontal resolution (measurement interval) is determined regardless of the sounding depth. be able to. As shown in FIG. 13, regardless of the depth, the resolution ΔH in the horizontal direction can be determined from only the transmission cycle T and the boat speed V. Furthermore, cases in which six types of transmission signals can be identified are schematically shown in FIG. 14 and FIG. Thus, the transmission period T can be made short, and sounding can be performed regardless of the depth, and high horizontal measurement resolution can be obtained.

  Although identification of the transmission signal can be performed by frequency etc., if the frequency range to be used is broadened in the frequency discrimination method, the propagation loss in water differs depending on the frequency, so it is not preferable that the detection distance has a frequency difference. Such problems do not occur because the improved acoustic measurement device identifies the transmitted signal by one frequency. That is, since the transmission signal can be identified, the transmission period is not restricted from emitting the next transmission signal after return of the bottom echo as in the prior art, so that sounding can be performed with a short transmission period, and horizontal resolution It can be improved dramatically.

  A simulation result and an example of actual measurement will be described with reference to FIGS. 16, 17 and 18. FIG. 16 shows a transmission signal and a reception echo signal (seafloor echo) obtained by the conventional sounding apparatus. The transmission period is 0.1 sec, and the echo of the seabed appears around 0.07 sec. It is possible to know the depth by transmitting the next transmission after echo is received and measuring the time from transmission to reception. In this case, if the speed of sound in water is 1,500 / sec, it is possible to obtain a depth of (0.07 × 1,500 / 2 = 52.5 m).

  On the other hand, in the sound sounding-up apparatus by the improved sound measurement apparatus, the transmission cycle can be determined regardless of the depth, and in the example of FIG. 17, the transmission cycle is 0.05 sec. The reception echo signal of the seabed is obtained between the transmission signals, but since the distinguishable code numbers A, B, C, ... are added to the transmission signals, the reception signals can be identified after passing through the correlator. . Even shorter transmission cycles than in this example can be identified. In addition, identification is possible even if the transmission signal and the reception signal overlap.

  Let us compare the image of the conventional echosounder with the image of the echosounder with the improved acoustic measurement device for the actual received echo signal. 18A and 18B are images of a conventional sounding instrument. FIG. 18 is a comparison of the image of the conventional echosounder with the image of the echosounder by the improved acoustic measurement device. FIG. 18A is an image of the conventional method and the image of which horizontal axis is 30 seconds, and FIG. 18B is an image of which horizontal axis is 3 seconds. In this example, in the image transmitted four times per second, the horizontal axis is a rather rough image.

  On the other hand, FIG. 18C is an image when transmission is performed 20 times per second by applying the method of the improved acoustic measurement device, setting the transmission cycle to 0.05 sec. FIG. 18D is an enlarged view of a part of FIG. 18C. It can be seen that there is fairly fine resolution in the horizontal axis direction compared to FIG. 18B. The actual transmission signal when the transmission cycle is 50 times per second is as shown in FIG. A signal of 200 kHz is phase-modulated with four waves as one bit with a fifth order 127-bit gold code, and pulse signals modulated with different gold codes are aligned every 20 ms to be transmitted.

Assuming that the carrier frequency is fc, the number of waves used for one bit is N cycles, and the length of the gold code is M bits, one pulse width Pd is represented by the following equation.
Pd = (1 / fc) × N × M

In the case where the carrier frequency fc = 200 kHz, the number N of waves used for one bit = 4, and the gold code length M = 127, the pulse width Pd is as follows.
Pd = 1/200000 x 4 x 127 = 0.00254 = 2.54 msec

  Furthermore, even if the transmission cycle is shortened and two transmission pulses are transmitted so as to overlap, they can be separated after correlation processing. FIG. 20 shows that even if two gold code signals (GC1 and GC2) are superimposed and transmitted or received, these two gold code signals can be detected separately.

<2. Opening synthesis>
Next, aperture synthesis will be described. Aperture synthesis is a method of increasing the resolution by forming directivity that is equivalent to a long aperture transducer by moving one transducer. It is a method to obtain horizontal resolution equivalent to the transducer with length L by repeating transmission and reception while moving the transducer with length d as shown in FIG. There is. Briefly, as shown in FIG. 22, the directivity angle of the length L of the transducer after aperture synthesis becomes sharper by the ratio d / L than the directivity angle by the length d of the transducer. The resolution is improved.

  In the coordinate system shown in FIG. 23, the composite signal S (x, y) of the reflection signal from the position of P (x, y) can be expressed by the following equation.

  Here, An is the directivity function, and tn is the time required for the round trip to the target P, where c is the speed of sound in water and can be expressed by the following equation.

  The improvement of the resolution by the aperture synthesis will be described using computer simulation. Assuming that there is a point target at the position as shown in FIG. 24, the echo of this target becomes an arc-shaped image as shown in FIG. 25 in the conventional sound sound system or sonar. FIG. 26A is an image in which a part is enlarged so as to be easy to understand, but this image already adopts the method by the improved acoustic measurement device, and transmits 20 times a second, ie, 100 on this image. It is a simulation image of echo of a batch.

  If this image is processed using the method of aperture synthesis, an image as shown in FIG. 26B is obtained. FIG. 26C is an enlarged view of a part of FIG. 26B. As can be seen from FIGS. 26B and 26C, it can be seen that a point target can be detected with a resolution of about 0.1 m. As the conditions for aperture synthesis, the transmission period is 0.05 sec (20 times / sec), the moving speed of the transducer is 2 m / sec, and the aperture length is 10 m.

  Similarly, in the case where the image obtained when the aperture combining method is adopted in the conventional method is as shown in FIG. 27A, and the transmission speed is once per second, the moving speed is 2 m / sec and the opening length is 10 m There are only 5 receive echoes as it can only transmit. Therefore, even if aperture synthesis is performed, only a low resolution image as shown in FIG. 27B can be obtained.

  FIG. 28 shows an image in which two point targets are arranged at a distance of 0.2 m. Before the aperture synthesis (FIG. 28A), the two point targets can not be separated, but after the aperture synthesis (FIG. 28B), two point targets Can be separated. FIG. 28C shows a part of FIG. 28B in an enlarged manner.

  Although the aperture synthesis method is an existing technique, the aperture synthesis method can be effectively used by advancing the transmission period using the improved acoustic measurement device method. That is, in the conventional aperture synthesis method, as in the conventional sound sounding, the next transmission is performed after the reception echo returns, so the transmission cycle T when the maximum detection distance is R is as described above (2R It is necessary to satisfy the relationship of / 1500 <T). Therefore, when the maximum detection distance is R = 500 m, (T> 2 × 500/1500 = 0.67 sec), and therefore, the transmission cycle is usually 1 time / sec. On the other hand, if the method of the improved sound measurement device is used, the transmission period can be set without being restricted by the maximum detection distance, and 20 times / second can be made, so that aperture synthesis can be used effectively. it can.

The advantages of the improved acoustic measurement device described above are as follows.
Conventional acoustic sounding devices and the like have been limited by the velocity of sound waves in water, but the improved acoustic measurement device overcomes these limitations. The restriction of the velocity of the sound wave in water means that the conventional sound sounding device etc. has sent the next transmission signal after sending the transmission signal and receiving an echo signal from the seabed or the like.
When the aperture synthesis process is performed by the conventional sound sounding apparatus or the like, the transmission cycle can not be made fast due to the restriction. Therefore, in order to increase the reception data in the opening, only the method of reducing the ship speed can be taken. If the technology of the improved sound measurement device is adopted, the transmission signal can be transmitted with a transmission cycle several to several tens times that of the conventional sound sounding device etc. It is overwhelmingly advantageous.

  Since the transmission period can not be shortened due to the restriction of the speed of the sound wave, the received signal often has no correlation with the previous received signal, so it is difficult to improve the SN ratio by adding a plurality of received signals. On the other hand, in the improved acoustic measurement device, the transmission period can be shortened dramatically, so there is a correlation between the signals before and after. Therefore, the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved by, for example, adding the received signals before and after, so that the received signals can be added even with a low transmission output, and downsizing of the device and power saving design can be achieved.

  Radar is known as a technology similar to a fish finder. Radar uses radio waves for equipment used in the air. The speed of radio waves is 300,000 km / sec, which is 200,000 times faster than the speed of sound waves in water of 1.5 km / sec. Therefore, even if the detection range of the radar is, for example, 100 km, the round-trip time of the 100-km radio wave is 0.00067 sec = 0.67 ms, and the transmission cycle can be 1 ms. That is, even if 1,000 transmissions are performed per second, they do not overlap with the reception echo. On the other hand, when trying to detect the bottom of a 1,000 m underwater, the reception echo signal will be returned after 1,000 × 2/1500 = 1.33 seconds, so the transmission period will be about 1.5 seconds. Radar and acoustic sounding devices have a ratio of 1.5 seconds / 1 ms = 1,500 times the realistic detection distance of 100 km and 1,000 m, and the speed of the sound wave is how underwater acoustic equipment such as acoustic sounding devices etc. It can be understood whether the transmission cycle is restricted. If the improved acoustic measurement device is used, this restriction is eliminated and the transmission period can be made much faster, so that it is possible to design an innovative acoustic sounding device or the like.

<3. Multi-beam echo sounder>
A multi-beam echosounder is described as another example of an improved acoustic measurement device. As shown in FIG. 29, the multi-beam acoustic sounder has a directivity called narrow fan beam in the direction of travel of the ship and a wide fan beam in the left and right direction. A transmitter is transmitted from one transmitter. It is called a multi-beam echo sounder because it has a plurality of wide beams in the longitudinal direction of the ship and narrow beams in the lateral direction so as to cross the transmission beams. FIG. 30 shows the configuration of a multi-beam echo sounder of another example of the improved acoustic measurement device.

  As described above, the transmission trigger generator 1, the gold code generator 2, the pulse modulator 3, the transmission amplifier 4 and the transmitter 5 are provided as the configuration on the transmission side. Underwater ultrasonic waves are transmitted from the transmitter 5. The transmission signal is a signal having a transmission cycle of several Hz to several tens Hz.

Unlike the receiver of a single-beam echo sounder, the receiver of the multi-beam echo sounder has a plurality of receivers 61 to 6N. The receiving amplifiers 71-7N are connected to the receivers 61-6N, and the correlators 81-8N are connected to the receiving amplifiers 71-7N. Correlator 81 to 8N
The output signal from the signal is input to the beam forming circuit 11 for an output for each gold code, and beam forming is performed to form a plurality of received beams.

  For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,462, the beam forming circuit 11 includes delay elements of an analog delay circuit and an analog delay circuit to which the outputs of the respective correlators 81 to 8N are respectively supplied. It is a circuit including a delay selection matrix which gives a predetermined delay by selection and an addition circuit which adds the output of the analog delay circuit. The output of the beamforming circuit 11 is supplied to the display and / or recording device 10, and the time until the echo is received for the transmitted pulse is displayed and / or recorded, respectively. When the improved acoustic measurement device is applied to such a multi-beam echo sounder, the same effects as those described above can be obtained.

<4. One embodiment>
An embodiment of a motion compensation device according to the present invention will be described. As described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, when measuring the seabed (meaning the seabed surface) by ultrasonic waves, the depth measured in response to wave motion relative to the reference sea surface is higher than that of the true seabed. It gets deeper or shallower. FIG. 31 shows bottom measurement values obtained by measurement with respect to an actual bottom under the assumption that the cycle of ship motion by waves is 1 Hz and the vertical motion is assumed to be +/- 1 m. The seafloor measurement by the echo sounder changes under the influence of the fluctuation. When the ship is lifted by waves the measurements will go deeper than the actual bottom of the seabed (shown by the dashed line) and when the ship is sunk it will come out shallower. In the example shown in FIG. 31, it can be seen that the measured depth data (solid line) is affected by the fluctuation with respect to the true bottom of the sea (broken line). The result of the motion correction is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 32, as a result of removing the fluctuation component due to waves, it is possible to almost detect the true seabed. When the seabed is relatively flat, wave motion can be regarded as a change in depth. The above-described acoustic sounding apparatus can make the period of the transmission signal short, so that it is possible to detect an oscillation component due to waves. There is a sway component other than the change in the vertical direction (the change in depth), but the detected sway component also includes the sway component, so it is not necessary to separately handle the sway component. From this point of view, in the present invention, when the velocity of the sound wave in water is Vu and the depth is D, the period of the transmission signal is less than (2D / Vu) and compared to the period of the motion component. It is assumed that the sampling theorem is satisfied.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, the oscillation component is separated from the measurement data by frequency separation based on the fact that the fluctuation component (for example, wave) changes more rapidly than the change in the true depth of the object (for example, the seabed). It is what makes upset by removing it. In the case where the change in depth is severer than the change in the movement component, the movement correction is difficult according to an embodiment of the present invention. In fact, in most cases except for the extremely rough rocky area, the motion correction according to one embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

  One example of the frequency separation method is to Fourier transform the depth data of the seabed and remove the fluctuation component using a filter that removes the frequency region considered to be a fluctuation component, and then performing inverse Fourier transformation to the true seafloor Only close components are regenerated. FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing the flow of this process.

Step ST1: Fourier transform the seafloor depth data. As a result of the Fourier transform, for example, as shown in FIG. 34, Fourier transform data including a motion component is obtained. The peak at the center of FIG. 3 is the frequency component of the true bottom, and the small mountain near 1 Hz shows the frequency component of the wave-induced oscillation.
Step ST2: Filter Fourier transform data. That is, as shown by a broken line in FIG. 34, processing is performed to remove components of 0.5 Hz or more, and small mountain components near 1 Hz are removed.
Step ST3: Inverse Fourier transform the filtered data. As a result, as shown by a solid line in FIG. 32, data of the bottom near the undulation of the true bottom is obtained. In practical applications, the true bottom depth can be determined by predicting or measuring wave components in advance and removing its frequency components.

Another example of the frequency separation method is to supply bottom depth raw data to a low pass filter (or band pass filter) 21 as shown in FIG. The seafloor depth raw data includes a motion component and means data before motion correction. As the low pass filter (or band pass filter) 21, as shown in FIG. 36, for example, a configuration of an FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter can be used. Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) configuration digital filters may be used. In FIG. 36, input data is supplied to the series connection of unit delay elements Z, and multipliers M1 to Mn multiply coefficients a0 to an by a plurality of samples respectively taken out between stages of the series connection. . The outputs of the multipliers M1 to Mn are added by the adder AD to obtain output data yn. The coefficients a0 to an can constitute a digital filter of desired frequency characteristics.

  37A and 37B input bottom depth raw data obtained at a transmission cycle of 100 times per second to the low pass filter (or band pass filter) 21 and output the low pass filter (or band pass filter) 21. Shows an example of obtaining seafloor depth data on which motion correction is made. In FIG. 37A and FIG. 37B, a solid line 22 indicates bottom depth raw data, and a broken line 23 indicates bottom depth data after motion correction. The motion correction provides data indicating the true bottom depth.

  Another example of the motion compensation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Depth data is recorded using the echo sounder of the present invention shown in FIG. The recorded depth data is data of time and depth value as shown in FIG. In this example, it is depth data obtained by performing 20 transmissions per second. Of course, more detailed depth data can be obtained by transmitting 100 times a second.

  The motion correction process can be performed by inputting the obtained depth data into the batch process flow shown in FIG.

<5. Other Embodiments>
In another embodiment of the present invention, motion correction is performed in a near real time by the motion component detected and detected by a ship (a buoy may be a float) floating on the sea surface stationary. As shown in FIG. 39, when the research vessel 31 for depth observation travels with a predetermined course and speed, the ship 32 for detecting the motion component is stopped in the sea area affected by the waves almost the same as the research vessel. Make me The oscillation component detected by the ship 32 is wirelessly transmitted to the survey ship 31. In the research ship 31, the movement correction is made by the movement component received from the ship 32.

  As shown in FIG. 40, the ship 32 is provided with a transmitter 41 for transmitting an ultrasonic wave to the seabed and a receiver 42 for receiving an echo from the seabed. A motion detection unit 43 is connected to the transmitter 41 and the receiver 42. The motion detection unit 43 obtains depth data by the same configuration and signal processing as the depth measurement shown in FIG. 7 and described above. The depth data should be constant because the ship 32 is stationary at the same place, but it is data of only the fluctuation component since it moves up and down by waves. The oscillation data is supplied to the wireless communication unit 44, and the transmission data including the oscillation data is transmitted to the survey ship 31.

  The survey ship 31 is provided with an acoustic sounding system similar to the depth measurement shown in FIG. 7 and described above. FIG. 40 shows only a part of the configuration associated with the motion correction. Raw depth data received by the receiver 6 and output from the receiving amplifier 7 is supplied to a low pass filter or band pass filter 48. The motion data from the ship 32 is received, and the wireless communication unit 45 outputs the motion data. The oscillation data is supplied to the adjustment circuit 46.

  The adjustment circuit 46 Fourier-transforms the transmitted oscillation data, detects a frequency component of oscillation due to waves, and forms a control signal based on the detection result. The control signal controls the cut-off frequency of the low pass filter or band pass filter 48 so as to remove the frequency component of the fluctuation component. This control signal is supplied as a control signal of the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter or the band pass filter 48. Thereby, it is possible to perform upset correction in near real time.

  Another embodiment of the present invention can achieve high accuracy because the motion correction is performed using actually detected motion data. In addition to survey vessels, vessels for detection, buoys, etc. are required, but cost reduction can be achieved by sharing vessels for detection, buoys, etc. among multiple survey vessels. In addition, the sounding system of the ship for motion detection has the same configuration as the sounding system of the research ship, and it is easy to alternate the roles of the ship and the research ship for motion detection. Cost can be reduced by devising.

<6. Application example>
According to the present invention, ultrasonic waves are transmitted and received using a transducer constituted by an ultrasonic transducer array. The transmitting beam is fan-shapedly directed from the ship to the seabed, and the seabed is viewed through the receiving beam. As a result, the bottom of the portion where the transmit beam range and the receive beam range overlap is examined. In the multi-beam method, it is possible to estimate the intensity of ultrasound echo for each direction by forming a reception beam having a predetermined beam pattern such that the main beam is directed to that direction for each direction. The present invention can be applied to the motion correction in the multi-beam method.

<7. Modified example>
As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described concretely, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, Various deformation | transformation based on the technical idea of this invention are possible. For example, the configurations, methods, processes, shapes, materials, numerical values, and the like described in the above-described embodiments are merely examples, and different configurations, methods, processes, shapes, materials, numerical values, and the like may be used as necessary. It is also good. For example, when correlation detection is performed, it is also possible to demodulate the received echo signal into a code and then detect the correlation. Furthermore, although the above description has described an echo sounding apparatus, the present invention can be applied to an apparatus using an echo sounding technique such as a multi-beam echo sounding system, a side scan sonar, a fish finder, a scanning sonar, etc. . Furthermore, the present invention can be applied not only to sea waves but also to motion correction of an echo sounder in fresh water.

  The functions of the processing apparatus in the above-described embodiment can be recorded as a program on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a ROM. Therefore, the function of the acoustic measurement device can be realized by reading this recording medium with a computer and executing it with a micro processing unit (MPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) or the like.

1 Transmission Trigger Pulse Generator 2 Gold Code Generator 3 Pulse Modulator 5 Transmitter 6 Receiver 8 Correlator 10 Display and / or Recording Device 21 Low Pass Filter or Band Pass Filter SR Shift Register EXA1 to EX127 Arithmetic Circuit

Claims (2)

In an echo sounder, which is installed on a moving object such as a ship, detects an object to be measured in water, and whose depth changes due to vertical oscillation,
A transmission signal formation unit having a pseudo noise sequence generation circuit that generates a pseudo noise sequence signal, and a modulation circuit that modulates a carrier signal with the pseudo noise sequence signal of transmission timing to form a transmission signal;
A transmitter configured to periodically transmit the transmission signal as an ultrasonic wave toward a measurement target located below the mobile object;
A receiving unit for receiving an echo of the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the transmitting unit;
A correlator that determines the echo corresponding to the transmission signal by correlating the echo with the pseudo noise sequence signal, and acquires raw depth data based on a time difference between the transmission signal and the echo;
A motion correction unit that suppresses motion components by performing motion correction on the depth raw data;
A display and / or recording device to which the output of the motion correction unit is supplied;
The period of the transmission signal is set to (2D / Vu) or less when the velocity of the sound wave in water is Vu and the depth is D, and the sampling theorem is satisfied compared to the period of the motion component Echo sounder. A multi-beam echo sounder, which is installed on a moving object such as a ship, detects the measurement object in the water, and whose depth changes due to vertical oscillation,
A transmission signal formation unit having a pseudo noise sequence generation circuit that generates a pseudo noise sequence signal, and a modulation circuit that modulates a carrier signal with the pseudo noise sequence signal of transmission timing to form a transmission signal;
A transmitter configured to periodically transmit the transmission signal as an ultrasonic wave toward a measurement target located below the mobile object;
A receiving unit for receiving an echo of the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the transmitting unit;
A correlator that determines the echo corresponding to the transmission signal by correlating the echo with the pseudo noise sequence signal, and acquires raw depth data based on a time difference between the transmission signal and the echo;
A motion correction unit that suppresses motion components by performing motion correction on the depth raw data;
A display and / or recording device to which the output of the motion correction unit is supplied;
The period of the transmission signal is set to (2D / Vu) or less when the velocity of the sound wave in water is Vu and the depth is D, and the sampling theorem is satisfied compared to the period of the motion component ,
A multi-beam echosounder, which sends out a large number of ultrasonic beams in a fan-like manner by the transmitter.