JPH04303706A - Ship-position detecting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the position of a ship which is changed by the ebb and flow of tide and the amount of unloading of bulk material in the unloading work of the ship in real time without contact and without much effort. CONSTITUTION:A laser range finder 10 is attached to cargo handling equipment such an unloader UL. A light beam is made to scan up and down toward a ship S which is approaching a pier. Among the results of the measurements of distances, the value indicating the shortest distance becomes the distance to the corner part of broadside of the ship. Therefore, the horizontal distance and the vertical distance of the ship with respect to the cargo handling equipment can be computed based on the distance and the up and down angle of the beam. When the cargo handling equipment is controlled with the horizontal distance and the vertical distance as the operating data, the equipment can be operated so that the scraping part at the tip of the cargo handling equipment and the like do not hit the bottom of the ship.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ship position detection device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a device that detects the height, horizontal distance, etc. of a ship from a quay when unloading or loading cargo from a ship docked at a quay.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION At present, continuous unloaders are often used to unload bulk materials such as coal and grain from ships berthed. Continuous unloaders generally consist of a truck that runs on rails installed on the quay, a boom that rotates and undulates on the truck, and a vertical conveyor that hangs from the tip of the boom.The vertical conveyor is inserted into the hold of the ship. do,
The scraping part at the tip continuously excavates loose materials in the warehouse,
It is transported and unloaded.

By the way, during unloading of bulk goods, the height of the ship relative to the quay changes continuously depending on the tide and the amount of unloaded cargo, and the horizontal distance from the quay also changes. If cargo handling equipment such as an unloader is not operated with these fluctuations in mind, the tip of the scraping section may collide with the bottom of the ship, resulting in damage to the cargo handling equipment or the bottom of the ship.

[0004] Conventionally, in order to prevent such accidents,
The following position detectors have been proposed. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 1983
-Position detector described in Publication No. 38618 (Conventional example I
) consists of a container containing liquid such as water, a pressure detector placed at a reference point on the quay side, and an infusion tube connecting the container and pressure detector. It was designed to be installed each time. With this device, the height of the ship can be determined by converting it into changes in the pressure of the liquid.

[0005] Furthermore, the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-198921 (Conventional Example II) has a microwave transmitter/receiver attached to the tip of the scraping device, and transmits microwaves toward the bottom of the ship. The distance to the bottom of the ship is determined by the reflected microwaves.

[0006]

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in conventional example I,
Only the height of the ship from the quay can be detected, but the horizontal distance cannot be detected. In addition, it is time-consuming to install a container containing liquid on the ship each time the ship berths, and furthermore, the height and distance between the ship and the quay are increased because the container and pressure detector are connected with an infusion tube. There was a problem that it could not be used in some cases.

Conventional Example II also has the same drawback of not being able to detect the horizontal distance from the quay, and furthermore, since the distance at which microwaves can be detected is about 1.5 m, the detector must be placed near the bottom of the ship. It has the disadvantage that it cannot be detected, and in addition, since a microwave transmitter is attached to the tip of the scraping device, there is a problem that it is easily damaged by contact with shipboard structures or cargo.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention is capable of detecting not only the vertical height of a ship but also its position including the horizontal distance from the quay, without requiring any human intervention, and which is capable of controlling cargo handling machines. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a ship position detection device that can provide ship position information in real time.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The ship position detection device of the present invention includes a laser range finder attached to a ship cargo handling machine installed on a quay so as to face a ship berthed, and the laser range finder. a levitation device that undulates and scans the beam light of the instrument, a levitation angle detector that detects the undulation angle of the beam light, and a beam that irradiates the shortest distance among the length measurement results of the laser range finder and the position of the shortest distance. It is characterized by comprising a calculation device that calculates the position of the ship from the undulation angle of the light.

[0010] The marine cargo handling device referred to in the present invention is a concept that includes both an unloader that unloads cargo from a ship and a ship loader that loads cargo onto a ship.

[0011]

[Operation] By scanning the beam of light emitted by the laser range finder toward a ship berthed, the distances to the ship's belly, corners, and deck can be measured. Of these, the distance to the edge should be the shortest distance, so if you know the distance and the beam undulation angle when irradiating the corner, you can determine the position of the ship from the cargo handling machine on the quay, that is, the vertical direction. The height and horizontal distance can be calculated. The geometric dimensions of the cargo handling equipment are known values, and the distance from the bottom of the ship to the hatch surface is also known, so by inputting and calculating these known values, the distance between the tip of the cargo handling equipment and the bottom of the ship can be calculated. can also be determined in real time, making it possible to control the cargo handling equipment to avoid collisions.

0012

[Embodiment] Next, the present invention will be explained based on an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a continuous unloader. In Figure 1, Q is a quay, S
UL is a continuous unloader that unloads bulk materials from a ship's hold, and runs on a rail R installed on a quay Q.

The continuous unloader UL itself has a known structure, and a swivel base 2 is mounted on a traveling carriage 1, and a boom 3 is supported on the swivel base 2 so as to be able to rise and fall freely. 4 is a hydraulic cylinder that moves the boom 3 up and down. A vertical conveyor 5 is suspended from the tip of the boom 3, and a scraping section 6 is attached to the tip. The ship S also has a known configuration, with 7 indicating a hold, 8 a bottom, and 9 a hatch.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a laser range finder used in the apparatus of the present invention, which is attached to a fixed part of the unloader UL and is operated to raise and lower by a suitable motor or the like. Also,
The laser range finder 10 may be an embodiment configured with one unit, but
As shown in FIG. 2, two laser range finders 10a and 10b are installed along the traveling direction of the unloader UL,
A set of two units may be used.

[0015] Here, the symbols in FIG. 1 mean the following dimensions. A: Vertical distance from the center of undulation of the laser range finder 10 to the center of undulation of the boom 3 B: Distance from the center of undulation of the boom 3 to the upper end connection point of the vertical conveyor 5 C: Scraping from the upper end connection point of the vertical conveyor 5 Distance α to the tip of part 6: Distance from the bottom 8 of the ship S to the hatch 9 Horizontal distance z to the corner a of the ship 10: Vertical distance from the center of undulation of the laser range finder 10 to the corner a of the ship 10 FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the detection device of this embodiment. The laser range finder 10 is connected to an appropriate motor 11 constituting a levitation device, and the laser range finder 10
A control section 12 is connected to the motor 11, and a control section 13 is connected to the motor 11. As the motor 11, a servo motor, a stepping motor, etc. are preferable from the viewpoint of controllability, and these motors 11 move the laser range finder 10.
By undulating the beam, the light beam can be scanned up and down.

14 is the elevation angle θ1 of the laser range finder 10
For example, the motor 11
A rotary potentiometer attached to a motor shaft or the like is used.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a calculation device that controls the laser range finder 10 and the like and calculates the position of the ship S based on the obtained detection data. This arithmetic unit 15 has a known numerical value (
A, B, C, x, etc.) are input, and the rotation angle and the up-and-down angle of the boom 3 are also input from an appropriate angle detector. The distance α from the bottom 8 of the ship S to the hatch surface is input each time.

Next, the procedure for detecting the ship position in this embodiment will be explained based on FIG. Before starting cargo handling work, the laser range finder 10 is moved up and down to scan the beam light toward the ship S that is berthed. In this case, by limiting the range of the undulation angle, only the hatch surface and the hull can be scanned around the corner a of the ship S, making it easier to extract the necessary signals.

Now, when the ups and downs are scanned once, the shortest distance among the measurement results should correspond to the distance L to the corner a of the ship S on the quay side. If this distance L and the undulation angle θ1 in the state of irradiating the corner part a are taken in as calculation data, the calculation device 15 calculates the horizontal distance y from the laser range finder 10 to the hull and the hatch from the laser range finder 10. The vertical distance z to the surface can be calculated. Also, Figure 2
If the horizontal distances y1 and y2 are calculated at the positions corresponding to the two laser range finders 10a and 10b, as shown in FIG.

[0020] If the position of the ship S, in other words, the horizontal distance y and the vertical distance z are determined as described above, then the unloader UL
Since the dimensions (A, B, C, etc.) and the depth α to the bottom 8 of the ship S are already values, the calculation device 15
The distance from to the bottom 8 of the ship can be calculated. Based on this result, it becomes possible to operate the unloader UL so as not to collide with the ship's bottom 8 or the like. Further, since the shortest distance L and the angle of elevation θ1 can be detected and subsequently calculated in real time, it is possible to sufficiently follow changes in the ship's position due to landing and ebb and flow of the tide.

FIG. 5 shows an example of use in detecting the inclination of the ship S in the width direction. In this case, Figure 5 (A
), the undulation angle of the laser range finder 10 is shown in FIG.
In this case, the corner b on the sea side of the ship S is also measured. The measurement results are drawn in a graph as shown in Figure (B), where e section detects the ship's belly, f section the deck, g section the distance to the hatch surface, and h section the distance to the sea of ship S. This shows that the part beyond the corner b on the side is irradiated and the distance becomes infinite. Therefore, e part and f
The intersection of the parts indicates the distance L and the undulation angle θ1 to the corner part a on the quay side of the ship S, and the intersection of the f part and the h part indicates the distance L and the undulation angle θ1 to the seaward corner part b of the ship S. It will be shown. From this detection result, the horizontal distance and vertical distance at the corner portions a and b on both sides of the ship S can be calculated, so the inclination of the ship S in the width direction can be detected. When this inclination is detected, the scraping section 6 of the unloader UL
It can also be controlled to prevent it from colliding with the bottom of the ship, even when it is moved in the width direction of the ship.

Furthermore, as an application example of the present invention, if the laser range finder 10 is rotated horizontally, the opening size of the hold opening on the top surface of the ship S can also be detected. As a mechanism for turning in the horizontal direction, for example, the laser range finder 10 of the above embodiment is placed on a dedicated turning table, a turning motor is connected, and a rotation angle detector such as an encoder for detecting the turning angle is installed. You can add it. and,
If the laser range finder 10 is rotated and raised to scan the beam light in the bow-to-stern direction, and raised and lowered to scan in the sea-to-land direction, the distance to the four corners of the hold can be detected based on the shape change around the opening of the hold. Each distance L can be detected, and the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the hold can be determined based on the detection results. Then, by controlling based on the results, it becomes possible to operate the unloader or ship loader so as not to collide with the hold.

[0023]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to detect in real time the overall position of a berthed ship, including the horizontal distance to a cargo handling machine such as an unloader, the vertical distance, the inclination with respect to the quay, and the inclination in the width direction of the ship. This makes it possible to operate marine cargo handling machines such as unloaders and ship loaders without colliding with the bottom of the ship.

Furthermore, since the present invention can detect a required distance without contact, it is advantageous in that it requires less effort and is less prone to failure.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing how a detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention is used.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a detection device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the procedure for detecting a ship position in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how to detect the inclination in the width direction of a ship according to the present invention, (A) shows the positional relationship between the laser range finder and the ship, and (B) shows the positional relationship between the laser range finder and the ship. It is a graph showing distance results.

[Explanation of symbols]

UL continuous unloader S Ship 7 Hold 8 Bottom of the ship 9 Hatch 10 Laser range finder 11 Motor 14　Luffing angle detector 15 Arithmetic device

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A laser range finder attached to a ship's cargo handling machine installed on a quay so as to face a berthed ship; and a levying device that scans the beam of the laser range finder up and down;
The position of the ship is calculated from the undulation angle detector that detects the undulation angle of the beam light, the shortest distance among the length measurement results of the laser range finder, and the undulation angle of the beam light that irradiates the position of the shortest distance. A ship position detection device comprising a calculation device. 2. The ship position detection device according to claim 1, wherein two of the laser distance finders are mounted on the ship cargo handling machine along the traveling direction of the ship cargo handling machine. . 3. The ship according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a turning device for turning and scanning the beam light of the laser range finder, and a turning angle detector for detecting the turning angle of the beam light. Position detection device. 4. The arithmetic device for calculating the position of the ship calculates the shortest distance and the distance immediately before reaching infinity among the length measurement results of the laser range finder, and the shortest distance and the distance immediately before reaching infinity. Claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the calculation is performed by taking in a detected value of the ups and downs angle of the beam light irradiating the position.
The vessel position detection device described.