JPH06242243A - Quay approaching speedometer and distance measuring sensor used therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize a quay approaching speedometer and a distance measuring sensor used therefor in which, even if the object to be measured does not exist, the operation of an apparatus can be confirmed in the speedometer to be used when a ship is brought alongside a pier or the quay. CONSTITUTION:Cases 21a, 21b of laser beam type distance measuring sensors 20a, 20b are mounted with covers 22a, 22b when quay approaching speedometer is not used. Light reflecting surfaces are provided for a known distance for a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit in the cases 21a, 21b in the covers 22a, 22b. The surface reflects a laser beam from the emitting unit and introduces it to the receiving unit. The speedometer body 30 confirms operations of the sensors 20a, 20b from measured data to be input from the sensors 20a, 20b through cables 40a, 40b.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a berth speedometer and a distance measuring sensor used therefor, and more particularly to a berth speedometer and a distance measuring sensor used when a large ship berths on a pier or a quay.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a large vessel approaches the quay when it comes to berth, the vessel collides with the quay if the approaching speed of the large vessel is too fast. This may destroy the quay. Therefore, in order to protect the quay, a berth speed meter is used as an auxiliary means for allowing a large vessel to approach the quay at a speed equal to or lower than a certain speed and to make the side surface of the vessel approach the quay in parallel.

In such a berth speedometer, it is important to improve the reliability that the operation of the device can be confirmed at any time.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic structure of an example of a conventional berth speed meter. In the figure, the berth speedometer is the main berth speedometer 1
And laser beam pulse distance measuring sensors 2a and 2
b, and two cables 3a and 3b connecting the berthing speed meter 1 and the distance measuring sensors 2a and 2b. The distance measuring sensors 2a and 2b are installed on the quay 4, and measure the distance between the quay side surface of the ship 5 and the quay 4.

The large vessel 5 is approaching the quay 4 while being pushed by the tugs 6 and 7. The distance measuring sensor 2a measures the distance between the quayside surface of the ship 5 on the bow side and the quay 4, and the other distance measuring sensor 2b measures
The distance between the position near the stern of the ship 5 and the quay 4 is measured by measuring the time from the emission of the laser beam pulse to the reception of the laser beam pulse.

The berth speedometer main body 1 includes a distance measuring sensor 2a.
Both measured values from 2 and 2b are input, the time change of both measured values, that is, the berthing speed is calculated, and the obtained result is displayed. The calculated berthing speed is displayed on a display unit such as a large lamp panel of the berth speedometer main body 1.

A pilot is on board the vessel 5, and the pilot guides the tugboat 6 when he / she sees the displayed berthing speed.
Indicate the optimal speed for each of 7 and 7. As a result, the vessel 5 can approach the quay wall 4 in parallel with its side surface at a constant speed or less, so that the vessel 5 can berth without destroying the quay wall 4.

[0008]

However, in this conventional berth speedometer, when the vessel to be measured does not exist, the distance measuring sensors 2a and 2b receive the reflected light reflected by the vessel. However, there is a problem that the operation of the device cannot be confirmed. However, the berth speed meter may have to be used at the time of berthing of the ship after the berthing of the ship has not been for a long time. In such a case, it is very uneasy for the user to be unable to confirm the operation of the berth speedometer.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a berthing speedometer that solves the above problems by making it possible to confirm the operation of the apparatus even if there is no measurement target. With the goal.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a configuration shown in the principle block diagram of FIG. As shown in the figure, a light emitting unit 11 for irradiating a light pulse to the ship, a light receiving unit 12 for receiving the light pulse reflected by the ship, and a light receiving unit 12 from the time when the light pulse of the light emitting unit 11 is emitted. Measuring circuit 13 for measuring the time until the point of receiving the reflected light pulse, and calculating means 14 for calculating the berthing speed of the ship based on the measuring time of the measuring circuit 13.
And a display section 15 for displaying the berthing speed calculated by the calculating means 14, which is provided with an optical reflecting means 16, a judging means 17, and a displaying means 18.

The optical reflecting means 16 is provided on the front surface of each of the light emitting section 11 and the light receiving section 12 when the berth speed meter is not used, and reflects the optical pulse from the light emitting section 11 to receive the light receiving section 1.
2. The determination means 17 determines whether or not the time measured by the measurement circuit 13 is the time when the optical pulse is reflected by the optical reflection means 16. Further, the display unit 18 displays the determination result of the determination unit 17.

As another aspect, the present invention provides a distance measuring sensor 20 including a light emitting section 11, a light receiving section 12, a measuring circuit 13 and an optical reflecting means 16.
The optical reflection means 16 includes the light emitting unit 11 and the light receiving unit 1.
2 is accommodated, and the light emitting surface side of the light emitting unit 11 and the light receiving unit 1
A case having an opening on the side of the light receiving surface of 2 and a light reflecting surface that closes the opening of the case at the time of mounting and reflects the light pulse from the light emitting portion 11 to enter the light receiving portion 12 are provided inside. And a lid.

[0013]

In the berthing speedometer of the present invention, the optical reflecting means 16 is provided in front of the light emitting section 11 and the light receiving section 12 when the berthing speedometer is not used. Similarly, the reflected light pulse is incident on the light receiving unit 12.

This reflected light pulse is reflected by the optical reflection means 16
Since the light pulse is reflected by the optical reflection means, and the distance between the light emitting portion 11 and the light receiving portion 12 and the optical reflecting means 16 is predetermined, the determining means 17 determines that the measurement result of the measuring circuit 13 is the optical reflecting means. It can be seen whether or not 16 indicates the presence. When the determination means 17 determines that the optical reflection means 16 is present, the display means 18 displays that the berth speedometer is operating normally.

Further, the berthing speed meter is often not used for a long time from the departure of one ship to the arrival of the next ship. For this reason, it is desirable to protect the front surface of the distance measurement sensor during periods of non-use. In the present invention, the optical reflection means 16 is provided on the front surfaces of the light emitting section 11 and the light receiving section 12, and exhibits a function as a lid for protecting these.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the berth speedometer is composed of two laser beam distance measuring sensors 20a and 20b, a berth speedometer main body 30, and two cables 40a and 40b connecting them.

The laser beam distance measuring sensors 20a and 20b include cases 21a and 21b and a lid 22, respectively.
a and 22b. These distance measuring sensors 21
a and 21b have the same structure, for example, the structure shown in FIG. 3A is a plan view, and FIG. 3B is a sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of FIG. Note that, in FIG. 3, the same components as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and subscripts are omitted.

The case 21 is, for example, a hollow cylinder having a diameter of 220 mm, and inside the case 21, a semiconductor laser 23 corresponding to the light emitting section 11, an avalanche photodiode 24 corresponding to the light receiving section 12, and the measuring circuit 13 are provided. The corresponding time measuring circuit 25 and the signal input / output unit 26 are housed. The signal input / output unit 26 is connected to the cable 40.

The semiconductor laser 23 has, for example, a wavelength of 905.
A laser beam of nm is emitted leftward and intermittently in FIG. That is, the semiconductor laser 23
Emits a laser pulse. The avalanche photodiode 24 receives the laser pulse with good response. The time measuring circuit 25 includes the semiconductor laser 2
The time from the time when the laser pulse is emitted from 3 to the time when the avalanche photodiode 24 receives the light is measured, and the measurement result is supplied to the signal input / output unit 26. The signal input / output unit 26 generates a predetermined signal format including digital data indicating the measurement result and at least a flag indicating the presence / absence of reflected light, and outputs the signal format to the berth speedometer main body 30 described later via the cable 40. To do.

The case 21 has an opening on the laser emitting surface of the semiconductor laser 23 and on the light receiving surface side of the avalanche photodiode 24, and the opening is covered with a protective glass plate 27. The distance between the glass plate 27 and the front surfaces of the semiconductor laser 23 and the avalanche photodiode 24 is about 200 mm.

The lid 22 constitutes the optical reflection means 16 and is set to have a diameter that closes the opening covered with the glass plate 27 of the case 21. Further, a light reflecting surface 28 is arranged inside thereof. The distance measuring sensor has a minimum measurable distance, but since this distance can be set from 0 mm with the outer surface of the glass plate 27 as a reference, the depth of the lid 22 is arbitrary, and in this embodiment, about 100 mm. There is.

The light reflecting surface 28 is made of, for example, sufficiently thick magnesium oxide so as to form a perfect diffusing surface.
As a result, the laser pulse from the semiconductor laser 23
Since the light reflecting surface 28 diffuses and reflects the light on a path other than the incident light path, a part of the reflected light is incident on the avalanche photodiode 24.

The lid 22 (22a, 22b) having such a structure
Is attached to the case 21 (21a, 21b) for a period of non-use after the ship leaves the shore until the next ship comes to the shore, and the berth speed meter is used when the ship comes to the shore.
It is removed from (21a, 21b).

Next, the berthing speedometer main body 30 shown in FIG. 2 will be described. The berth speedometer main body 30 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer system as shown in FIG.
In FIG. 4, the microprocessor 31 is an arithmetic circuit that realizes the above-described calculation means 14 and determination means 17 by software processing. Read Only Memory (RO
M) 32 is a memory that stores an operation program of the microprocessor 31. The random access memory (RAM) 33 is a work area of the microprocessor 31 and a storage area for input data.

The serial input / output ports 34a and 34b are
The signal input / output unit 2 of FIG. 3 via the cables 40a and 40b.
6 and is used for bidirectional data transfer between the distance measuring sensors 20a and 20b, for example, by RS232C interface specifications.

The input / output port 35 is used for the keyboard 3
8 and the display device 41, the output port 36 is
It is connected to the lamp panel 39. The microprocessor 31, the ROM 32, the RAM 33, the serial input / output ports 34a and 34b, the input / output port 35, and the output port 36 are connected by a bidirectional bus 37.

The display device 41 is a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device or a liquid crystal display device. Also, the lamp panel 3
Reference numeral 9 is a panel in which a plurality of lamps are arranged in a dot matrix and the status is displayed by a lighting pattern of the lamps. In the present embodiment, for example, “check good”, “check bad”, “first sensor check good”, “first sensor check bad”, “second sensor check” is displayed on the display device 41 and / or the lamp panel 39. “Good”, “Second sensor check failure”, etc. are displayed. These displays are selected according to the conditions under which the device is used. The lamp panel 39 and the display device 41 constitute the display unit 15 and the display means 18. The lamp panel 39 is formed in a size that can be visually recognized by the ship.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 to 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
When inspecting the berth speed meter during the period when the berth speed meter is not used, first confirm that the lids 22a and 22b shown in FIG. 2 are attached to the cases 21a and 21b, and then turn on the power. . After that, the keyboard (38 in FIG. 4)
The user operates the specific function key that is assigned to "Start inspection" among the function keys in (See). Then, the microprocessor 31 of FIG.
7 and the serial input / output ports 34a and 34b and the cables 40a and 40b, the distance measuring sensor 20
a and 20b are driven. As a result, the distance measuring sensor 2
0a, 20b operates normally, the laser beam pulse from the semiconductor laser 23 shown in FIG. 3 in the distance measuring sensors 20a, 20b is diffused and reflected by the light reflecting surface 28 as described above, and the reflected light is The light is incident on the avalanche photodiode 24.

The time measuring circuit 25 in the distance measuring sensors 20a, 20b measures the time from the point of time of emission of the laser beam pulse to the reception of light by the avalanche photodiode 24, and converts the time measured value into a distance measured value. , To the signal input / output unit 26.

As a result, the distance measuring sensors 20a, 20
The signal input / output unit 26 in b adds a flag indicating the presence or absence of reflected light to the above distance measurement value to take out the distance measurement data in a predetermined signal format, and the cable 40a,
40b through serial input / output ports 34a, 3 of FIG.
Enter in 4b. The microprocessor 31 includes input distance measurement data from the distance measurement sensor 20a (hereinafter, also referred to as a first sensor) and distance measurement sensor 20b (hereinafter, referred to as a second sensor).
Input distance measurement data from the sensor)
Store in AM33. The above is the "start of inspection" in step 51 of FIG.

Subsequently, the microprocessor 31 makes the first
The distance measurement data of the sensor 20a is read from the RAM 33 (step 52), and the presence or absence of reflected light is determined from the flag in the distance measurement data (step 53). If there is reflected light, it is determined whether the measured value in the distance measurement data is a correct value (step 54). As described above, the semiconductor laser 23 and the avalanche photodiode 24 of the distance measuring sensor 20 (20a, 20b) and the lid 22 (22
Since the distance from the light reflecting surface 28 of (a, 22b) is known in advance, the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the above measurement value are input in advance by the keyboard (see 38 in FIG. 4) in consideration of the variation. .

Therefore, the microprocessor (31 in FIG. 4)
In step 54, it is determined whether or not the measured value is within the range between the upper limit value and the lower limit value, and if it is within the range, it is determined to be normal, and the process proceeds to step 55. The determination result of OK is stored in the RAM (see 33 in FIG. 4).

On the other hand, when it is determined in step 54 that the measured value is out of the range, the semiconductor laser 2
3 or avalanche photodiode 24 can be judged to be defective due to aging. Therefore, in this case, the process proceeds to step 56 and the determination result of the measured value NG is stored in the RAM.

When the result of determination that there is no reflected light is obtained in step 53, the lid 22a shown in FIG.
Since the reflected light cannot be obtained even though the first sensor 20a is attached to the a, it can be determined that the first sensor 20a is defective such as inoperative. Therefore, the process proceeds to step 57 of FIG. 5, and in this case,
The absence of reflected light from the first sensor is stored in the RAM. By the storage processing of the above steps 55, 56 or 57, the check of the first sensor 20a is completed.

Then, the second sensor 20b is checked (step 58). This check is performed in the same manner as steps 52 to 57 in FIG. That is, the second
The presence or absence of reflected light is determined from a flag in the distance measurement data from the sensor 20b. If there is reflected light, whether the measured value is OK or NG depends on whether or not the measured value is within the predetermined range. Is stored in the RAM (see 33 in FIG. 4), and when there is no reflected light, the fact is stored in the RAM.

Microprocessor (see 31 in FIG. 4)
When the check of the second sensor 20b in step 58 is completed, the process proceeds to step 59 to read out the determination result stored in the RAM (see 33 in FIG. 4), and the lamp panel or the display device (see FIG. 4). 39, 41), and the end processing is performed. At this time, which and how to display is a matter of design specification. When this end processing is completed, the inspection processing of the berth speedometer main body is completed (step 60).

As described above, according to this embodiment, the lids 22 of the two laser beam type distance measuring sensors 20a and 20b are provided.
a and 22b are attached to the cases 21a and 21b,
When there is reflected light and the distance measurement value is within the specified range during the period when the berth speed meter is not used,
The berth speed indicator can be automatically displayed as normal. Further, when the above conditions are not satisfied, it is possible to automatically display the defect of the berth speedometer.

Therefore, it is possible to confirm the operation of the berth speed meter even during the non-use period when there is no measurement target,
Even if it is not used for a long time, you can always use the berth speed meter with peace of mind. In addition, in this embodiment, the lid 22
By (22a, 22b), the glass plate 27 on the front of the berthing speed meter can be protected.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and instead of the keyboard 38, for example,
An inspection start switch may be mounted in the berth speedometer main body. The time measuring circuit 25 may be built in the berth speedometer main body 30.

[0040]

As described above, according to the berthing speed meter of the present invention, the optical reflecting means is provided at a known distance from the light emitting part and the light receiving part of the berthing speed meter when the berthing speed meter is not used, By determining whether there is reflected light from a known distance, it is possible to easily check whether the berth speedometer is operating normally, and therefore, even when it is not used for a long period of time, The berthing speed meter can be used with confidence, and the reliability of the berthing speed meter can be greatly improved.

Further, according to the distance measuring sensor of the present invention, since the optical reflection means is provided as a lid on the front surface of the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion, the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion are protected while the berth speed meter is not used. can do.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a configuration diagram of a distance measuring sensor in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a berthing speedometer main body in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the main part of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of an example of a conventional berthing speed meter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 ... Light emitting part 12 ... Light receiving part 13 ... Measuring circuit 14 ... Calculation means 15 ... Display part 16 ... Optical reflection means 17 ... Judgment means 18 ... Display means 20, 20a, 20b ... Distance measuring sensors 21, 21a, 21b ... Case 22, 22a 22b ... Lid 23 ... Semiconductor laser 24 ... Avalanche photodiode 25 ... Time measurement circuit 26 ... Signal input / output unit 28 ... Light reflecting surface 30 ... Berthing speedometer main body 31 ... Microprocessor 38 ... Keyboard 39 ... Lamp panel 41 ... Display device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A light emitting unit for irradiating a light pulse to a ship, a light receiving unit for receiving the light pulse reflected by the ship, and the reflected light of the light receiving unit from the time when the light pulse of the light emitting unit is emitted. A measuring circuit for measuring the time until the point of receiving the pulse, a calculating means for calculating the berthing speed of the ship based on the measuring time of the measuring circuit, and a display section for displaying the berthing speed calculated by the calculating means. In the berth speedometer having, an optical reflection which is provided on the front surface of each of the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit when the berth speed meter is not used and reflects the light pulse from the light emitting unit to enter the light receiving unit. Means, judging means for judging whether or not the time measured by the measuring circuit is the time when the optical pulse is reflected by the optical reflecting means, and display means for displaying the judgment result of the judging means. That Berthing speedometer to butterflies. 2. A case in which the light emitting section and the light receiving section are housed, a light emitting surface side of the light emitting section and a light receiving surface side of the light receiving section are openings, and the opening of the case is closed when mounted. The optical reflection means is configured by a lid having a light reflection surface inside which reflects a light pulse from the light emitting portion and enters the light receiving portion, and the measurement circuit is incorporated. A distance measuring sensor used for the berth speedometer according to Item 1.