JPH06132716A - Antenna posture controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an antenna posture controller which is small and light, whose control is easy and which solves an accompanied problem through the use of the precession motion of a gyro. CONSTITUTION:An antenna 22 provided with a spin motor 25 and torque motors 28x and 28y, a supporting stand 23 and bearing follow-up means 30, 31 and 32 are provided. The antenna 22 is fitted to the supporting stand 23 in such a way that it can be rotated by an elevation rotation axis X and a rotation axis Y orthogonal to the axis X through a first jimbal mechanism 37 and that it is neutrally balanced. The spin motor 25 having larger angular momentum H compared with the inertia of the antenna 22 is positioned at a part opposite to the direction 36 of the antenna from the rotary axis Y. A centroid is supported so that it can be rotated by the rotary axis (x) orthogonal to the spin shaft 27 of the spin motor 25 through a second jimbal mechanism 38 and a rotary axis (y) orthogonal to the axis (x) so as to fit it to the antenna 22. The torque motors 28x and 28y giving torque to the rotary axis (x) are separately fitted to the jimbal mechanism 38 and the antenna 22.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an antenna attitude control device for a satellite communication device mounted on a ship.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The direction of a communication satellite is uniquely determined if the azimuth and elevation are determined. Azimuth is the angle measured from the north to the right in the horizontal direction of the satellite, and the elevation angle is the angle between the line of sight of the satellite and the horizontal plane. And these angles are a function of the ship's position, ie, longitude and latitude. Therefore, for a moving ship, it is necessary to calculate the azimuth angle and the elevation angle based on the data of the ship's own position and track the satellite, and the antenna of the satellite communication device mounted on the ship normally has a CPU for this purpose. It has a tracking mechanism consisting of a servo mechanism. By the way, the antenna cannot perform high-quality communication unless the pointing direction of the antenna is always directed to the communication satellite even when the ship is shaken. Therefore, in addition to the finger north gyro for calculating the own ship's position, a vertical gyro is provided as a vertical reference, and the vertical gyro is used to detect the rolling and pitching angles of the ship, and the servo mechanism described above is driven by this signal. It is possible to always control the pointing direction of the antenna toward the communication satellite. That is, this is a method of stabilizing the antenna in common with the direction control mechanism, which is called an active type. On the other hand, unlike this, a passive type method for stabilizing an antenna by using a gyro mechanism is shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a rear view of the passive antenna attitude control device. In FIG. 5, two spin motors 5, 5 having a flywheel 5 a and having angular momentum in the vertical rotation axis direction are attached to a horizontal stabilizing base 2, and the horizontal stabilizing base 2 is connected via a gimbal mechanism 3 to The shaft is rotatably supported by the column 4. A frame 1a of an antenna 1 is rotatably supported on the horizontal stabilizer 2 and the elevation angle of the antenna 1 is fixed to the horizontal stabilizer 2 by an elevation angle control motor 6 attached to the frame 1a. The rotation is performed by rotating the frame 1a around the pulley 8 thus formed. The azimuth angle is set by turning the support column 4 by the turning axis drive motor 9. That is, the antenna 1 does not exert an external torque on the rolling in the two axial directions by the gimbal mechanism 3, and maintains the direction set by the inertia of the rotational axis of the spin motor 5 in the axial direction. So it is stabilized. The direction control of the antenna 1 is performed by the elevation angle control motor 6 and the turning axis drive motor 9 as described above. Further, a method in which these active type and passive type are mixed is also used.

[0003]

The antenna for satellite communication mounted on a ship is always connected to the antenna of the communication satellite while avoiding the influence of the mast and various devices mounted on the ship in order to ensure good quality communication during the operation of the ship. Since it is necessary to place it in the direction, it will be installed at a high place such as on a bridge or mast. However, the above-mentioned conventional antenna attitude control device has problems that the device becomes large and control is complicated.

Therefore, an antenna attitude control device for a ship using the precession motion of a gyro is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-85602, and its outline is shown in FIG. 6, in the antenna attitude control device 60, a spin motor (flywheel) 62 that rotates at high speed and has an angular momentum H is supported by a support frame 64 via a gimbal mechanism 63, and the antenna 61 is directly attached to the spin motor 62. Connected,
Torque motors 65 and 66 that apply rotational torques T ₁ and T ₂ are connected to the rotating shaft of the gimbal mechanism. Then, by applying the rotational torques T ₁ and T ₂ , the precession motion of the spin motor 62 is used to direct the direction Z of the antenna 61.
Is what changes. However, in the antenna attitude control device 60, the torque motor 6 has a common rotation axis for imparting the rotation torques T ₁ and T ₂ and a rotation axis for precession.
5, 66 are connected, and the axial friction (drag force) is added by that amount. When utilizing the precession motion of the gyroscope, if the axial friction (drag) of the rotating shaft of the precession motion is large, the adjustment error of the pointing direction Z of the antenna 61 becomes large, which is not preferable.

Further, the antenna attitude control device 60 has an elevation angle φ.
Since both the azimuth and the azimuth θ have a vertical reference and a horizontal reference 69 (not shown) on the hull side and are feedback-controlled, the deflection angle detectors 67 and 68 respond to rolling and output a deflection signal, thus causing a malfunction. A low pass filter is needed for both to prevent.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art. The object of the present invention is to utilize the precession motion of the gyro, to make it small, lightweight, and easy to control. An object of the present invention is to provide an antenna attitude control device that solves the above and other problems.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an antenna attitude control device according to the present invention comprises an antenna having a spin motor and a torque motor, a support base,
An antenna attitude control device comprising azimuth tracking means, wherein the antenna is rotatably and neutrally balanced by an elevation angle rotation axis X and a rotation axis Y orthogonal thereto via a first gimbal mechanism. The spin motor has a large angular momentum as compared with the inertia of the antenna, and is located at a portion opposite to the pointing direction of the antenna from the rotation axis Y. Through a gimbal mechanism, a rotation axis x orthogonal to the rotation axis of the spin motor and a rotation axis y orthogonal to the rotation axis have a center of gravity supported rotatably and are attached to the antenna. It is composed of a first torque motor that applies a torque to the shaft x and a second torque motor that applies a torque to the rotating shaft y. The first and second torque motors are divided into either a gimbal mechanism or an antenna. It is those that have been Attach.

Further, an inclinometer for detecting the horizontal level may be attached to the antenna, and the elevation angle of the antenna may be controlled by the output of the inclinometer.

[0009]

When a rotational torque is applied by a torque motor to a rotation axis x orthogonal to the rotation axis or a rotation axis y orthogonal to the rotation axis of a spin motor mounted on the antenna and having a rotation axis in the direction of the antenna, a so-called precession is obtained. The spin motor tries to rotate about the rotation axis y or the rotation axis x that is perpendicular to the axis to which the rotation torque is applied. At this time, since the antenna is supported by the first gimbal mechanism so as to be rotatable in two axial directions and neutrally balanced, the antenna rotates about these axes and utilizes this precession motion. The pointing direction of the antenna can be controlled. Here, when axial friction occurs during the rotation of the antenna, the frictional force acts as a reverse torque on the spin motor and thus causes a deviation in the pointing direction of the antenna. However, in the present invention, the spin motor is provided with the antenna via the second gimbal mechanism. Since it is attached to the main body and the rotational torque is applied to the rotary shaft of the second gimbal mechanism by the torque motor, it is not necessary to connect the torque motor to the rotary shaft of the first gimbal mechanism that supports the antenna main body. The shaft friction can be reduced, and thus the deviation can be minimized.

Further, since the spin motor maintains a constant direction in the absolute stationary system, it is necessary to correct the influence of the rotation of the earth in order to maintain the constant direction on the earth. An inclinometer for detection is attached to the antenna, and when the inclinometer tilts, a deviation signal is output, and feedback control is performed to adjust the elevation angle of the antenna so that the deviation signal disappears. it can. Further, if the inclinometer can be set to an arbitrary inclination angle, the elevation angle of the antenna is automatically adjusted until the inclinometer becomes horizontal as described above, so it can be used to control the elevation angle of the antenna. .

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a side view of the antenna attitude control device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a rear view of the antenna attitude control device of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a view showing a state in which the antenna of the antenna attitude control device of FIG. 1 faces a vertical plane. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control method of the antenna attitude control device of the present invention.

First, the configuration of the antenna attitude control device of the present invention will be described with reference to the side view of FIG. 1 and the rear view of FIG. In FIG. 1, the antenna attitude control device 16 is attached to the support base 23 such that the antenna unit 20 having the attitude control unit 21 is rotatably and neutrally balanced via the first gimbal mechanism 37. . That is, the antenna 22 having the radiating portion 22 a and the reflecting portion 22 b is the antenna 2 extending from the reflecting portion 22 b in the direction opposite to the directing direction 36.
It is rotatably attached to the support frame 24 by the elevation angle rotation axis X and the rotation axis Y orthogonal thereto via the two two attachment frames 22c and 22c and the first gimbal mechanism 37. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the rotation axis Y is the mounting frame 22c, 2
2c is rotatably supported by the frame 37a of the first gimbal mechanism, and the rotation angle deviation meter 30 installed on the frame 37a of the first gimbal mechanism is attached to the rotation axis Y via the gear 30a. Are linked together. The elevation rotation axis X is fixed to the frame 37a of the first gimbal mechanism and is rotatably supported by the support frame 24. Here, the method of fixing and supporting the elevation angle rotation axis X and the rotation axis Y may be reversed.

In FIG. 1, the attitude control unit 21 includes a spin motor 25 having a flywheel 26 and a rotary shaft 27 of the spin motor 25 via a second gimbal mechanism 38.
The mounting frames 22c, 22c are rotatably supported by a center of gravity by a rotation axis x orthogonal to the rotation axis y and a rotation axis y orthogonal thereto.
Is attached to. Here, the rotation axis y is parallel to the rotation axis Y. By doing this, the azimuth angle or the elevation angle can be set to the rotation axis x
Alternatively, a rotational torque can be applied to one of the rotation axes y to change it. In FIG. 2, the rotation axis x is fixed to the spin motor 25 and is fixed to the frame 38a of the second gimbal mechanism.
Is rotatably supported by the frame 38 of the second gimbal mechanism.
Rotational torque is imparted via the gear 29x by the torque motor 28x installed in a. The rotation axis y is fixed to the frame 38a of the second gimbal mechanism and is rotatably supported by the mounting frames 22c and 22c of the antenna 22, and the torque motor 28y installed in one mounting frame 22c causes the rotation shaft y to pass through the gear 29y. Rotational torque is applied. Here, reversing the method of fixing and supporting the rotating shaft x and the rotating shaft y, the rotating shaft y
May be fixed to the spin motor 25, and the rotation axis x may be fixed to the frame 38a of the second gimbal mechanism. Further, an inclinometer section 35 is installed on the other mounting frame 22c. The inclinometer unit 35 has a box shape, and an inclinometer 35a for detecting the horizontal level is attached to the rotary shaft 35d.
The inclinometer 35a includes an inclinometer drive motor 35b and an inclination angle detector 35c which are provided outside through a gear of a rotating shaft 35d.
Are linked to. Therefore, the angle of the inclinometer 35a can be arbitrarily set by the inclinometer drive motor 35b.

In FIG. 2, the support base 23 is provided with a supporting frame 24 on a revolving shaft 34, and the revolving shaft 34 is connected to a revolving shaft drive motor 32 via a gear, and the supporting frame 24 is provided.
An azimuth encoder 31 that is connected to the swivel shaft 34 and detects the swivel angle is installed in the. Further, the antenna unit 20 is provided with a slip ring 33 and the like for transmitting and receiving electric power, a detection signal, and a drive signal. Further, the rotary shaft X, the rotary shaft Y, and the swivel shaft 34 are configured to use a thrust bearing and a damper together so as to have a degree of freedom in the thrust direction, so as to absorb a sudden acceleration.

Next, the operating principle of the antenna section will be described. In FIG. 1, the operating principle of the antenna unit 20 is that the spin motor 25 is used as a gyro and the precession motion which is a unique phenomenon of the gyro is used. That is, by rotating the flywheel 26 at a high speed (ordinary rotation of the rotor of the normal spin motor 25), the torque motor is applied to the rotation axis x perpendicular to the rotation axis of the spin motor 25 having a sufficiently large angular momentum vector H. When the rotational torque N is applied by 28x, the spin motor 25 causes a precession motion, and tries to turn at a angular velocity ω = N / H around the rotational axis x that is perpendicular to the rotational axis x to which the rotational torque is applied. At this time, the spin motor 25 rotates the rotation axis y or the rotation axis Y.
It is possible to swing around any of the axes of, and to swing around the axis with the smaller drag. Here, a torque motor 28y is connected to the rotating shaft y via a gear 29y,
If the reduction gear ratio between the gear of the torque motor 28y and the gear 29y is sufficiently large, the spin motor 25 does not rotate about the rotation axis y. On the other hand, the antenna unit 20 is the spin motor 2
By supporting the center of gravity with the first gimbal mechanism 37, the entire body including the attitude control unit 21 such as 5 is supported in a biaxially rotatable and neutrally balanced manner. Therefore, the spin motor 25 revolves around the rotation axis Y,
Along with this, the entire antenna unit 20 also rotates about the rotation axis Y, and the azimuth angle of the antenna 22 in the directivity direction 36 changes. Further, when a rotation torque is applied to the rotation axis y, the elevation angle of the antenna 22 in the directivity direction 36 also changes. In this way, the rotation torque is applied to the rotation axis x or the rotation axis y of the spin motor 25 which are orthogonal to each other, whereby the antenna 22
The pointing direction 36 of the can be arbitrarily changed.

It is necessary to set the angular momentum H of the spin motor 25 to be sufficiently larger than the moment of inertia about the elevation angle rotation axis X or rotation axis Y of the antenna section 20. If this is not the case, the effect of nutation, which is a parasitic motion other than the precession motion that is a stationary motion, becomes large, and the antenna 2
This is because the control error in the pointing direction 36 of No. 2 cannot be ignored.

Next, the operation of the above antenna attitude control device 16 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the direction control operation will be described. 1 and 4, the calculation unit 43 of the antenna attitude control device calculates the azimuth angle of the communication satellite from the data of the ship position 41, and the azimuth angle and the finger north gyro 42 for ship navigation and the azimuth encoder 31 are used. Azimuth deviation calculation 45 is performed from the data of the turning angle signal 54, and if there is deviation, a drive signal 50 is output and the x-axis torque motor 28x is output.
Is applied to apply torque to the rotation axis x of the spin motor 25. Then, the Y-axis precession motion 51 of the spin motor 25 causes the antenna unit 20 to rotate about the rotation axis Y, and the deviation angle detector 30 detects this rotation and outputs a follow-up signal 52 to output the rotation axis drive motor 32. To rotate the support frame 24 to follow the rotation of the antenna unit 20. This turning angle is detected by the azimuth encoder 31 and is fed back to the calculating unit 43 as the turning angle signal 54 as described above, and the calculating unit 4
3 performs the above feedback control until the deviation disappears, and adjusts the pointing direction 36 of the antenna 22 to the azimuth angle of the satellite. Further, the calculation unit 43 calculates the elevation angle 44 of the communication satellite from the data of the own ship position 41, outputs the elevation angle signal 46 and drives the inclinometer drive motor 35b to incline the inclination angle detector 3
The inclinometer 35a is tilted to the minus side up to the elevation angle by using 5c. Then, the inclinometer 35a outputs the drive signal 48 and drives the y-axis torque motor 28y to drive the spin motor 2a.
Torque is applied to the rotation axis y of the spin motor 25,
The axis precession motion 49 causes the antenna unit 20 to rotate about the elevation angle rotation axis X, and the tilt of the inclinometer 35a changes to the horizontal side. This feedback control is performed until the inclinometer 35a becomes horizontal, and the pointing direction 3 of the antenna 22 is adjusted.
6 is adjusted to the elevation angle of the satellite. When the elevation angle becomes large and approaches 90 degrees, the turning angle of the support frame 24, which should follow a slight change in the azimuth angle of the satellite, becomes large. Therefore, an error in the pointing direction 36 of the antenna 22 near the elevation angle of 90 degrees is caused. Within the allowable range, the detection sensitivity of the azimuth angle is gradually lowered, and when the angle reaches 90 degrees as shown in FIG. 3, the follow-up is stopped. It is also possible to use a satellite signal (not shown) and automatically track the satellite from the rate of change in the signal strength.

Since the spin motor 25 maintains the constant direction in the absolute stationary system, it is necessary to correct the deviation due to the rotation of the earth in order to maintain the constant direction on the earth. Among them, the elevation angle is described above. The inclinometer 35a for detecting the horizontal direction is attached to the antenna unit 20 as shown in FIG.
8) is output and the elevation angle of the antenna is adjusted until the deviation signal disappears, so that it is automatically corrected. On the other hand, the azimuth angle is also corrected automatically when the azimuth angle is deviated because feedback control is performed with the finger north gyro 42 as a reference. Further, in FIG. 1, the directivity direction 36 of the antenna 22 and the direction of the rotary shaft 27 of the spin motor 25 match, but they do not necessarily have to be aligned. However, in the case of disagreement, the angular velocity of the precession motion that occurs even if the same rotational torque is applied is reduced.

Next, the stabilizing operation will be described. In FIG. 3, since the antenna 22 is rotatably attached to the support base 23 by the gimbal mechanism 37 about the rotation axis X and the rotation axis Y, external torque does not act on the rolling in the two axis directions. Also, since the spin motor 25 supports the center of gravity, it indicates a fixed direction and the angular momentum H
Directional direction of the antenna 3 due to the inertia of the rotation axis of the
Stabilized to maintain 6. Although FIG. 3 shows the case where the antenna directivity direction 36 is vertical, the same applies even if the directivity direction 36 is not vertical. Further, in FIGS. 2 and 4, since the deviation angle detector 30 responds to rolling and outputs the follow-up signal 32, the follow-up signal 32 is passed through a low-pass filter to prevent malfunction, and a fast cycle is obtained. The support base 23 is prevented from following the sway of. It should be noted that the inclinometer 35a is mounted on the mounting frame 22c of the antenna 22 as a vertical reference so that the y
This is not necessary because the shaft torque motor 28y is feedback-controlled.

[0020]

As described above, the antenna attitude control device of the present invention utilizes the inertia and precession of a spin motor having angular momentum to perform both antenna stabilization and direction control with a single spin motor. Therefore, the configuration is simple, the device can be made smaller and lighter, and the control is easy.
When mounted on a ship, it can be easily installed at a high place such as a mast. Further, since the rotating shaft that imparts the rotating torque and the rotating shaft for the precession are separate from each other, the shaft friction can be minimized and the pointing direction adjustment error of the antenna can be reduced. Further, since the antenna has a vertical reference inclinometer, a low-pass filter for rolling is not required for the elevation angle, which simplifies control. Moreover, this can be achieved using a relatively simple means, an inclinometer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an antenna attitude control device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a rear view of the antenna attitude control device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state in which an antenna of the antenna attitude control device of FIG. 1 faces a vertical plane.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control method of the antenna attitude control device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a rear view of a conventional antenna attitude control device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an outline of a conventional antenna attitude control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 H angular momentum X elevation angle rotation axis Y rotation axis x rotation axis y rotation axis 16 antenna attitude control device 22 antenna 23 support base 25 spin motor 27 rotation axis 28x x-axis torque motor (first torque motor) 28y y-axis torque motor (first) 2 torque motor) 30 deviation angle detector (azimuth following means) 31 azimuth encoder (azimuth following means) 32 turning axis drive motor (azimuth following means) 35 inclinometer 36 pointing direction 37 first gimbal mechanism 38 second gimbal mechanism

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An antenna attitude control device, comprising: an antenna having a spin motor and a torque motor; a support; and an azimuth tracking means, wherein the antenna has an elevation rotation axis X via a first gimbal mechanism. And a rotation axis Y orthogonal to the rotation axis Y are rotatably and neutrally balanced and attached to the support base. The spin motor has a large angular momentum as compared with the inertia of the antenna, and It is located on the opposite side of the antenna from the axis Y,
The center of gravity is rotatably supported by a rotation axis x orthogonal to the rotation axis of the spin motor and a rotation axis y orthogonal to the rotation axis via a second gimbal mechanism, and is attached to the antenna.
The torque motor is configured to apply a torque to the rotating shaft x.
An antenna attitude control characterized by comprising a torque motor and a second torque motor for imparting torque to the rotation axis y, wherein the first and second torque motors are separately attached to either the gimbal mechanism or the antenna. apparatus. 2. The antenna attitude control device according to claim 1, wherein an inclinometer for detecting the level is attached to the antenna, and an elevation angle of the antenna is controlled by an output of the inclinometer.