JPH0446224Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Ceramic and ferrite elements suitable for reversibly converting electric power and sound waves are arranged in an arc shape.
There are sonar devices that transmit sound waves and receive echoes.

This type of sonar device excites all or part of the above-mentioned elements when transmitting waves, transmitting sound waves to a predetermined sector, and when receiving echoes, excites all or part of the above-mentioned element rows. It processes and synthesizes the amplitude and phase of the electric power of the induced echo, shapes it into a sharp receiving beam, and scans it in a spiral pattern to clearly capture the position and shape of the target object.

This invention uses the above element row all around (360 degrees).
Improvements in sonar devices that have a structure that makes it impossible to arrange them in multiple directions, i.e., that it is impossible to detect echoes by transmitting and receiving sound waves over the entire circumference using only electronic means. The drawings will be described in detail below.

Figure 1 shows the configuration of the main part of the present invention. 1 is an element row that converts electric power and sound waves used for transmitting and receiving waves. As shown in the figure, several dozen elements are assembled in an arc shape. Although not shown, it is housed in a water-resistant case called a Sona Dome.

When transmitting sound waves, power at the sound wave frequency is sent to the required portions of the element array 1 from the transmitting circuit shown in 5.

The reason why the element row 1 is not completely circumferential as shown in the figure and is partially missing is because the missing space above accommodates a mechanism for tilting the direction of transmission and reception of the sound wave beam (referred to as inclination angle adjustment). It is.

The range of the sound wave beam generated by such an arc-shaped element row 1 cannot include the area where the element row 1 is missing, but by adjusting the inclination angle described above, the sound wave beam can be moved from the water surface to the water bottom. It is possible to change direction up to the direction of

The dimensions, number, etc. of the element row 1 are determined depending on the sharpness, intensity, etc. of the target acoustic beam.

For example, if the sound wave frequency is 75 kHz, the receiving beam width is 10 degrees, and the transmitting power is 10 kW, the diameter of the element array is 25 cm.
It is 20 centimeters long, has 40 elements, and is made of barium titanate.

2 is the turning shaft of element row 1, 201
The sector for transmitting and receiving waves is changed using the turning motor shown in .

The tilt angle shaft shown in 3 is element row 1.
The inclination of the element row 1 is changed by the inclination angle motor shown at 301.

Starting and stopping of the turning motor 201 and the inclination motor 301 are performed by electric power supplied from the angle control circuit shown in 4.
The operation of is controlled by a transmission/reception control circuit shown at 7.

6 is a receiving circuit that amplifies the echo signal induced in element row 1, converts the analog signal into a digital value (referred to as A-D conversion), and amplifies the echo signal induced in all or some elements of element row 1. The amplitude and phase of the received echo signals are processed and synthesized so that the received beam becomes as sharp as possible, and the received beam is processed within a predetermined sector range based on instructions from the transmission/reception control circuit 7. Scan in a spiral pattern.

This scanning method, similar to conventional scanning sonar, processes and synthesizes the amplitude and phase of the echo signals of multiple elements in element row 1, so that a sharp receiving beam can be obtained. In the circuit configuration, the plurality of elements described above are sequentially advanced electronically within a predetermined sector range, and a sharp reception beam is scanned in a partial spiral shape at high speed within the sector range. It is.

The scanned echo signal obtained through such a procedure is A/D converted and stored in the main memory circuit shown at 10, and this operation will be explained later.

The writing address control circuit 8 determines the display location (hereinafter referred to as "display location") for displaying on the color cathode ray tube shown at 14 so that the received echo is in the relative position of the underwater target from which the echo was obtained. , address).

In order to use this address control as a reference, the transmission/reception control circuit 7 sends a write address control circuit 8 specifying sectors for transmitting and receiving sound waves, trigger signals for transmitting waves from the transmitting circuit 5, A signal instructing the receiving circuit 6 to scan the receiving beam is added to correctly set the above address.

As already explained, the echo signal obtained when the sharp receiving beam scans in response to a scanning command is
The data is A-D converted and stored in the main memory circuit 10.

The write address control circuit 8 has a coordinate conversion function. In the present invention, a sharp reception beam is scanned in a spiral manner within a predetermined sector to obtain an echo signal containing information about the distance and direction of the echo signal.

Therefore, if the image format of the electron beam of the color cathode ray tube 14 is a collection of bright spots on the vertical and horizontal sweep lines, as in a general television, then the echo signal captured in the spiral shape described above can be When visualizing it, it is necessary to convert it to a vertical and horizontal sweep line (hereinafter referred to as a raster).

This transfer operation is called coordinate transformation.
Write address control circuit 8 that operates as described above
The information on the raster position of the echo signal that has undergone coordinate transformation is added to the stored address switching circuit shown at 9. Here, the information on the position of the color cathode ray tube 14 created by the address control circuit shown at 12 is added. A signal serving as a reference for the raster is added, and the signals at the coordinate-converted positions are arranged so as to appear at the correct position on the raster, thereby setting the position in the main memory circuit 10 where the echo signal is stored.

A part of the output of the display address control circuit 12 is
The electron beam is applied to the deflection circuit of the color cathode ray tube shown at 13, and is waveform-shaped and amplified to sweep the electron beam of the color cathode ray tube 14 in a raster pattern.

The raster created in this way corresponds to the position of the echo signal obtained by scanning with a sharp receiving beam by the receiving circuit 6 in accordance with a command from the transmitting/receiving control circuit 7.

As explained above, in the main memory circuit 10 in which the address for storing the echo signal is set,
The A-D converted echo signal from the receiving circuit 6 is added and stored, and the three primary color electrons of the color cathode ray tube 14 are sent to the color cathode ray tube 14 via the color output circuit shown at 11 according to a command from the storage address switching circuit 9. Density modulate the beam.

The color output circuit 11 converts the digital value output from the main memory circuit 10 into an analog value (hereinafter referred to as D-A).
A circuit (called a color matrix) that separates the D-A converted analog value into three primary color components (red, green, blue).
Contains.

Then, the color of the echo signal that is D-A converted and passed through a color matrix and appears in the image of the color cathode ray tube 14 corresponds to the characteristics of the A-D conversion of the receiving circuit 6.

For example, if you want to display the strongest expected echo in red, the mid-strength echo in yellow, and the weakest echo in blue, you can display only the red electron beam for the strongest echo, and only the red electron beam for the mid-strength echo. , an output that mixes appropriate amounts of three color electron beams is applied from the color output circuit 11 to the control electrodes of the three primary color electron beams of the color cathode ray tube 14.

15 is a numerical value insertion circuit, in order to insert digital numerical values such as the scanning range (sector, distance, angle, etc.) of the receiving beam's echoes, the area of water and water temperature, etc., the transmitting/receiving control circuit controls the raster position of these digital numerical values. The circuit set by the command of 7, the shape of the numerical value,
It includes a circuit for determining dimensions, and its output is added to the color output circuit 11, and the echo image and digital numerical values are superposed and displayed.

Figure 2 shows the case where the sector is set to 120 degrees, and the outer shape of the display is arcuate within the rectangular display screen.
By setting a fixed display area in the shape of consecutively adjacent sectors facing in multiple directions.
In an embodiment of the present invention in which 360 degree echoes are simultaneously displayed on a cathode ray tube, three sectors of images shown at 21, 22 and 23 are displayed on the display surface of a color cathode ray tube shown at 20, and 26, The angle of inclination shown at 27 and the digital numerical value indicating the distance indicating the display range of the image are illustrated.

If the repetition rate of the signal read out from the main memory circuit 10 is several dozen times per second or more, as in normal color television, these images appear to our eyes as continuously shining images. However, in this embodiment, after the image of sector 21 appears, the image of sector 22 appears,
Next, 23 sectors of images appear to complete a 360-degree image, and this operation is repeated several dozen times per second.

For example, when storing received wave echoes in the responsible range of sector 21 in the main memory circuit 10 and then store received wave echoes in the responsible range of sector 22 in the main memory circuit 10, the rotation motor 201 rotates the element array. 1 must be swiveled to point towards sector 22.

Therefore, it takes several seconds to several tens of seconds to complete storing the received echoes in the coverage area of all sectors.
Seconds are required.

In the present invention, the contents of the main memory circuit 10 are retained until the scanning of the assigned range of each sector is completed and the next scanning is repeated, so that the contents of the received wave echoes of all sectors are stored every second. By reading out the image several dozen times, a clear 360-degree image can be obtained.

In these sectors, there are echo images indicated by A, B, C, and D, and as already explained, these echo images have colors according to their intensities.

25 is a mark indicating a reference direction such as the bow of a ship equipped with the device of the present invention, and the pointing direction of each sector is read based on this mark.

24 are echoes of noise returned from waters near the ship, echoes of waves, etc.

28 is near the boundary of the sector, and due to the time difference between the completion of scanning of the receiving beam of sector 21 and the scanning of the receiving beam of sector 22,
If there is a fluctuation in the echoes, the positions of image examples B and C may be displayed discontinuously even if the echoes are from the same target object.

In order to reduce such discontinuity between sectors, the time required to change the direction of element row 1 to the adjacent sector can be shortened by narrowing the range of each sector. Select a range of 60 degrees.

In addition, in order to reduce the visual discontinuity of the video near the sector boundaries 28 mentioned above, it is sufficient to display the areas near the boundaries of each sector so as to overlap the adjacent sectors. The operations of the address control circuit 12 and the memory address switching circuit 9 may be set so that the output of the main memory circuit 10 serves the above purpose.

As is well known, the speed at which sound waves propagate through water is
approximately 1500 meters per second, so if the target for which echo detection is required is at a distance of 1500 meters, the time required to detect an echo in such a sector would be approximately 2 seconds.

Therefore, the time required to detect echoes in a 360 degree range using the three sectors illustrated in FIG. 2 is about 6 seconds.

If we were to display the same sector images as above using a conventional display device, the echo images would disappear after the cathode ray tube's afterglow time, so we would have to observe all sectors at the same time. It is impossible.

Since the present invention stores the echo signals of each sector in the main memory circuit 10 and then repeatedly reads them out and displays them, the cathode ray tube has a short afterglow time of several tenths of a second, like a cathode ray tube for color television. However, a clear display can be obtained.

In the above explanation, the echo signals of surrounding targets centered on element row 1 are transmitted to multiple sectors 21 and 2.
However, when receiving the echo signal of one sector among the plurality of sectors, the rotation shaft 2 and the dip angle shaft 3 are By moving in the direction of the target, for example in the direction of the water bottom, the vertical distribution of the echo signals can be displayed.

Although not shown, a function is added to the numerical value insertion circuit 15 to generate a mark for measuring the distance and angle of the echo image in addition to the numerical value, and the numerical value corresponding to this mark is inserted into a suitable place on the display surface 20 of the cathode ray tube. It can be displayed anywhere.

As a means to solve the above-mentioned discontinuity near each boundary, set the write address control circuit and/or display address control circuit so that the echo images overlap near the boundaries of multiple sectors. You can do it as you like.

As described above, the present invention uses a storage circuit to obtain display signals to set a fixed display area on a raster-scanning display screen in which sectors with circular arc-shaped outer peripheries are consecutively adjacent in multiple directions. After converting the echo signal obtained by scanning a corresponding underwater sector range in a spiral pattern and performing a search with a much faster direction change than distance changes into a digital signal, a display signal is generated. Since the coordinates are converted and stored in the corresponding sector storage position in the storage circuit to obtain the data, so that the boundaries of each sector overlap, the circuit for associating the display scan with the detection scan and the storage The configuration of coordinate conversion circuits, etc. can be easily configured, and the transducer for detection and scanning can be small enough for each sector, making it possible to provide a wide range detection sonar device at low cost. It has the advantage of providing stable echo display in the vicinity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the main parts of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a display example of the present invention in which the number of sectors is set to three. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Element row of transducer, 2... Swivel shaft of element row, 3... Inclination shaft of element row, 201... Rotating motor, 301...
...Inclination motor, 4... Angle control circuit, 5... Transmission circuit, 6... Receiving circuit including scanning circuit, 7...
Transmission/reception control circuit, 8...Writing address control circuit,
9... Memory address switching circuit, 10... Main memory circuit, 11... Color output circuit, 12... Display address control circuit, 13... Braun tube deflection circuit, 14... Color cathode ray tube, 15... Numerical value Insertion circuit, 20...Display surface of cathode ray tube, 21...
sector in which an echo signal is being written, 22... sector waiting to be written, 23... sector waiting to be written,
24... Image of noise in the water area near the element row, 25... Mark of reference direction such as the bow, 26
...Angle of inclination of element row, 27...Distance indicating the display range of the image, 28...Near the boundary of the sector, A...Example of echo image (in sector 21),
B... Echo image (inside sector 21), C
...Echo video example (in sector 22), D...
...Example of echo video (in sector 23).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] 1 Displaying a display signal based on the echo signal obtained by transmitting sound waves into water and scanning the receiving beam (hereinafter referred to as detection scanning) on a display device with a rectangular display screen. A sonar device having an arcuate sector (hereinafter referred to as
a display means for setting a fixed display area having a shape in which display sectors (referred to as display sectors) are consecutively arranged adjacent to each other in a plurality of directions by a display storage means described later, and displaying the display signal in this display area; b a display storage means for storing in a storage circuit a digital signal for obtaining the display signal corresponding to the display scan; c. an underwater sector (hereinafter referred to as underwater sector) corresponding to the display sector; sector detection scanning means for performing the detection scanning by scanning with a much faster direction change; d. rotating the direction of the underwater sector of the sector detection scanning means in correspondence with the plurality of directions; all-sector searching means for obtaining each of the echo signals in each of the underwater sectors corresponding to each of the display sectors; e. after AD converting each of the echo signals in each of the underwater sectors; Each sector storage means stores a signal obtained by overlapping the boundaries of each sector and performing coordinate transformation as the digital signal at a storage position of the storage circuit corresponding to the obtained underwater sector. Features a sonar device. 2. Utility model registration The sonar device according to claim 1, characterized by comprising means for making each of the display sectors equal sectors, and means for making each of the underwater sectors equal sectors. Device. 3. The sonar device according to claim 1, wherein the display area has a circular shape.