JPH06300838A - Underwater object position detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an water under object position detector which can measure underwater distance accurately by detecting an object in water while scanning 360 deg. range within a horizontal surface speedily. CONSTITUTION:The detector is provided with a rotary box 8 rotatably mounted on a base box 3 which supports a motor 4 and is laid out under a water surface 2, a slit beam laser light source 9 mounted at the rotary box 8, a TV camera 10, and an ultrasonic probe 11. Also, it is provided with a motor power supply 12 connected to the motor 4 and a motor control device 13, an X-Y tracker 14 connected to the TV camera 10 as well as the motor control device 13, a pulser receiver 16 connected to the ultrasonic probe 11, and a distance measuring circuit 17 connected to the pulser receiver 16 as well as the motor control device 13 outside the water surface.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an underwater object position detecting device applied to an obstacle detection of an underwater robot or a position control of a submarine oil production facility.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a fish finder or a sonar has been used as a position detecting device for an underwater object, and a sector scanning method for scanning a sonar to measure a 360 ° range has been used for detecting in a horizontal plane in water. Has been adopted. However, most of them have a measuring range of 10 m or more, and when used within 10 m, it is not possible to accurately detect the position of a fine underwater object due to reflected waves from the surroundings and poor resolution. This is because, assuming a distance of several tens of meters to several hundreds of meters, a vibrator with a frequency of 10 kHz to several hundreds kHz, which has a small propagation attenuation in water, is used. Therefore, it is considered that these conventional devices have not practically used the small and lightweight detection device capable of measuring an iron bar or the like having a resolution of several mm at an underwater distance of about 10 m and capable of being mounted on an underwater robot or the like. There 1
As a short-distance detection device within 0 m, as shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 2, a device using an ultrasonic probe having a frequency f = 0.5 MHz to 2 MHz as a sonar can be considered. This is to mount an ultrasonic probe 22 on a rotating disk 23 below the water surface 21, detect an underwater object 26 while rotating the disk 23 by 360 ° by a motor 25 driven by a motor power supply 24, The ultrasonic wave oscillated by the ultrasonic probe 22 transmitted / received from the pulsar receiver 27 is reflected by the underwater object 26, and the reflected wave is the ultrasonic probe 2
Received by 2.

However, in such an apparatus, the ultrasonic probe 22 is driven by the motor 25 at a constant speed of 360 °.
Scan and detect underwater objects 26 in the horizontal plane,
Since it measures the distance to, the ultrasonic probe 2 rotating the distance signal reflected by hitting the underwater object 26.
In order to receive at 2, it is necessary to rotate at a low speed, and if rotational scanning is performed at a high speed, there is a possibility that the reflected wave cannot be received. Further, in such a device, the number of data pieces of the distance measurement signal of the reflected wave is small and accurate measurement is difficult.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, and detects an underwater object while scanning a 360 ° range in a horizontal plane at high speed to measure an underwater distance with high accuracy. An object of the present invention is to provide an underwater object position detection device.

[0005]

To this end, the present invention has a rotating box mounted on a base box mounted with a motor so as to be rotatable by the motor and mounted on the rotating box. Slit light laser light source, TV camera and ultrasonic probe, motor power supply and motor control device arranged outside the water surface and connected to the motor, and arranged outside the water surface and connected to the TV camera and the motor control XY connected to the device
A tracker, a pulsar receiver arranged outside the water surface and connected to the ultrasonic probe, and a distance measuring circuit arranged outside the water surface, connected to the pulsar receiver and connected to the motor control device. It is characterized by

[0006]

In the underwater object position detecting device of the present invention, the ultrasonic probe is scanned at a high speed of 360 ° to detect the underwater object and accurately measure the underwater distance. The XY tracker tracks the underwater object at high speed, and the tracking signal is used as a control signal for the motor to rotate the motor at high speed to a position where the underwater object and the ultrasonic probe face each other. The ultrasonic probe faces the underwater object and measures the reflected wave from the underwater object for a certain period of time after receiving the distance signal. In addition, the measurement time depends on the number of data required for measurement accuracy.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG.
Explaining the schematic diagram, the water surface 2 where the underwater object 1 exists
In the base box 3 arranged below, the motor 4
And a potentiometer 5 is connected to its output shaft, and front and rear thrusters 6 and left and right thrusters 7 are attached to the outside of the bottom of the base box 3. A rotary box 8 connected to the output shaft of the motor 4 is mounted on the base box 3, in which a slit light laser light source 9 and a TV camera 10 are installed in the same direction. A single ultrasonic probe 11 or a plurality of ultrasonic probes 11 tilted by a directivity angle is provided above the ultrasonic probe 11. On the other hand, outside the water surface 2, a motor power supply 12 and a motor control device 13 for supplying electric power to the motor 4 are arranged and an X- that receives an image pickup signal of the TV camera 10
A Y tracker 14 and a TV monitor 15 are arranged, and a pulsar receiver 16 connected to the ultrasonic probe 11 for transmission and reception and a distance measuring circuit 17 connected to the pulsar receiver 16 are also provided.
Are arranged. The XY tracker 14 and the distance measuring circuit 17 are connected to the motor controller 13.

In such a device, when the slit light laser light source 9 projects the slit light in a certain angle range in the horizontal plane, the projected slit light has an underwater object 1 within the range of the slit light. A slit light is projected on 1 and a light spot is connected on it. This light spot is TV camera 1
The captured image signal is converted into an electric signal in the XY axis directions by the XY tracker 14. On the other hand, the ultrasonic probe 11 that measures the underwater distance to the underwater object 1 rotates like the TV camera 10.

However, the position signal of the light spot on the XY tracker 14 is input to the motor controller 13, and the electric signal of the XY tracker 14 is transmitted to the ultrasonic probe 11 and the underwater object 1.
Is preset so that the output voltage is close to 0 V at positions facing each other on the same axis. Therefore, when there is no spot light, that is, when the underwater object 1 cannot be detected, and when the spot light is detected and it is at the edge on the screen of the TV camera 10,
A large voltage is output from the XY tracker 14, and the motor controller 13 commands high speed rotation via the motor power supply 12. The rotation angle of the rotary box 8 is detected by the potentiometer 5 and fed back to the motor control device 13 through the motor power supply 12. When the rotating box 8 rotates and the light spot on the screen of the TV camera 10 comes near the center, the output voltage of the XY tracker 14 becomes 0.
As it approaches V, the motor 4 is stopped. In this state, the motor controller 13 sends a signal to the pulsar receiver 16 through the distance measuring circuit 17 to instruct the start of measurement,
The ultrasonic probe 11 generates an ultrasonic wave, receives a reflected wave from the underwater object 1, and converts it into a distance signal required by the distance measuring circuit 17 through the pulsar receiver 16. After measuring the number of data required as the distance signal, the motor control device 13 commands the motor 4 to rotate, and the rotation box 8 rotates at a high speed aiming at the next underwater object 1. In this way, high-speed scanning of 360 ° in the horizontal plane is performed, and the distance measurement is performed on the underwater object 1 in the stopped state of the rotating box 8 by the required number of data, and the measurement accuracy can be improved.

Thus, according to this apparatus, the ultrasonic probe 11, the slit light laser light source 9 and the TV camera 10 are mounted on the rotary box 8 driven by the motor 4, and the motor 4 for driving the rotary box 8 is controlled. By doing so, the range of 360 ° in the horizontal plane can be scanned at high speed to measure the accuracy of the underwater distance of the underwater object 1. Therefore, this device can be used as an eye of an underwater robot and as a control signal of a marine oil production facility. Applied.

[0011]

In summary, according to the present invention, a rotary box rotatably mounted by the motor on a base box mounted with a motor and disposed under the water surface, and a slit light laser mounted on the rotary box. Light source, TV
A camera and an ultrasonic probe, a motor power supply and a motor control device that are arranged outside the water surface and connected to the motor, and an X that is arranged outside the water surface and connected to the TV camera and the motor control device. A Y tracker, a pulsar receiver arranged outside the water surface and connected to the ultrasonic probe, and a distance measuring circuit arranged outside the water surface, connected to the pulsar receiver and connected to the motor control device. Since the present invention provides an underwater object position detecting device capable of detecting an underwater object and measuring the underwater distance with high accuracy while scanning a 360 ° range in the horizontal plane at high speed, the present invention is extremely useful industrially. It is a thing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an embodiment of an underwater object position detecting device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a conventional underwater object position detection device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Underwater object 2 Water surface 3 Base box 4 Motor 5 Potentiometer 6 Front / rear thruster 7 Left / right thruster 8 Rotating box 9 Slit light laser light source 10 TV camera 11 Ultrasonic probe 12 Motor power supply 13 Motor controller 14 XY tracker 15 TV monitor 16 Pulser receiver 17 Distance measuring circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rotating box rotatably mounted by the motor on a base box mounted with a motor and disposed below the water surface, a slit light laser light source mounted on the rotating box, a TV camera and an ultrasonic wave. A probe, a motor power supply and a motor control device which are arranged outside the water surface and connected to the motor, and an XY tracker which is arranged outside the water surface and connected to the TV camera and the motor control device. , A pulsar receiver arranged outside the water surface and connected to the ultrasonic probe, and a distance measuring circuit arranged outside the water surface and connected to the pulsar receiver and connected to the motor control device. Underwater object position detection device.