JPH06309586A - Onboard device for diver's safety support device and diver receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the onboard device for diver support device which quickly and accurately transmits information from a mother ship to a diver. CONSTITUTION:A quartz oscillator 101 generates a first pulse having a repeat period T with a preliminarily determined precision. An operation part 108 selects the distance measurement mode or the communication mode to output a signal corresponding to the selection result. A first signal processing/control part 103 receives the signal from the operation part to output a distance measuring pulse synchronized with the repeating period T in the case of the distance measurement mode and to output a communication signal indicating the command to the driver in the case of the communication mode.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a support device for ensuring the safety of divers who are active underwater.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the number of accidents has tended to increase as the number of divers increases. Accidents during scuba diving often lead to life or death of divers,
We must make every effort to prevent it. The most common accidents during scuba diving are drifting accidents underwater, especially when using boats to dive offshore.

As a conventional device for preventing such a drift accident, a diver carries a transponder, and an ultrasonic signal is transmitted through water between an ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving device mounted on a mother ship (boat) and the transponder. -There are known people who receive. This device measures the transponder (diver) position seen from the mother ship by the SSBL (Spar Short Baseline) system or the SBL (Short Baseline) system and monitors the diver.

[0004]

However, in this type of device, (1) it is not possible to quickly know that the diver himself is in a dangerous situation, and (2) the transponder carried by the diver transmits ultrasonic signals. In addition to the transmission circuit for transmission, it is necessary to incorporate a battery that can withstand transmission for about 1 hour, which naturally limits the miniaturization of equipment.
(3) When trying to monitor a large number of divers at the same time,
(4) On the mother ship, the device becomes complicated and expensive because it requires a device such as distinguishing the call signal to each diver with the FSK signal or changing the frequency of the response signal from each transponder. Since it is a round-trip communication between the device and the transponder, there is a drawback that the reliability of diver position measurement is reduced.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a diver support device onboard device capable of quickly and accurately transmitting information from a mother ship to a diver.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a diver receiver for a diver support device which can be reduced in size and weight.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a first oscillation source for generating a first pulse having a repetition period T with a predetermined accuracy, and a first oscillation source from the first oscillation source. A first signal processing / control unit that receives a pulse and outputs a distance measuring pulse that is synchronized with the repeating cycle T, and a wave transmitter that irradiates the distance measuring pulse into water as an ultrasonic signal in a non-directional manner. A shipboard device for a diver safety support device, which is characterized in that it is provided.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a diver receiver for a diver safety support device, which is used in combination with the shipboard device for the diver safety support device, wherein the second pulse of the repetition period T is generated. A second oscillation source; and an ultrasonic wave receiving sensor that receives an ultrasonic wave signal from the wave transmitter,
A receiving unit that processes a reception signal from the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor to extract the distance measuring pulse, and synchronizes the second pulse with the extracted distance measuring pulse when the diver starts diving. Reset means for controlling the time difference, time difference measuring means for measuring the time difference between the second pulse and the distance measuring pulse extracted by the receiving section after resetting by the reset means, and the time difference measured in advance. A diver receiver including a second signal processing / control unit for calculating a distance by performing the above calculation and a display for displaying the calculated distance can be obtained.

As the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor, one having a flexible polymeric piezoelectric film or piezoelectric rubber formed like a wrist belt and having a receiver body attached thereto is used.

Further, the second signal processing / control unit has a function of generating an alarm sound signal according to the calculated distance, and an underwater earphone which receives the alarm sound signal and generates an alarm sound. A diver receiver characterized in that it is provided is obtained.

According to the present invention, further, the first oscillation source for generating the first pulse of the repeating period T with a predetermined accuracy, and the distance measurement mode or the communication mode are selected to select the result. An operation unit that outputs a signal according to
When a distance measurement mode is selected in response to a signal from the operation unit, a distance measurement pulse synchronized with the repetition cycle T is output, and when the communication mode is selected, communication indicating a command to the diver. Diver safety support, comprising: a first signal processing / control unit that outputs a signal for use in a diver; and a transmitter that irradiates the distance measuring pulse and the signal for communication as an ultrasonic signal into water omnidirectionally An onboard device for the device is obtained.

According to the present invention, there is further provided a diver receiver for a diver safety support device, which is used in combination with the above-mentioned shipboard device for a diver safety support device, wherein the second pulse of the repetition period T is generated. A second oscillation source; and an ultrasonic wave receiving sensor that receives an ultrasonic wave signal from the wave transmitter,
A receiving unit that processes a received signal from the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor to extract the distance measuring pulse or the communication signal, and a determination unit that processes the extracted communication signal to determine the content of the command Means, resetting means for synchronizing the second pulse with the extracted distance measuring pulse when the diver starts diving, and the second pulse and the receiving section which are extracted after resetting by the resetting means. And a time difference measuring means for measuring a time difference with the distance measuring pulse, and a distance is calculated by performing a predetermined calculation using the measured time difference, and a command display according to the discrimination result of the discriminating means. Second output signal
A signal processing / control unit and a display for displaying the calculated distance or a command based on the command display signal are obtained.

As the above-mentioned first and second oscillation sources, a crystal oscillator having a temperature compensation function in combination with a temperature sensor is used.

[0014]

According to the present invention, the crystal unit whose temperature is compensated by using the temperature sensor is provided in each of the support device on the mother ship and the diver receiver, and the two are synchronized at the start of diving. The linear distance between the mother ship and the diver can be measured only by one-way communication from the onboard equipment on the mother ship to the diver receiver. Also, as a sensor for ultrasonic signal reception of the diver receiver, a flexible polymer piezoelectric film or piezoelectric rubber is used to make it smaller and lighter, and the diver's safety is secured without restraining the diver's underwater activities. Secure.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the concept of the present invention.
Is equipped with a shipboard device 10 that emits ultrasonic signals in all directions from an ultrasonic transducer 2 for wave transmission immersed in water. A diver receiver 4 that receives an ultrasonic signal from the onboard device 10 is attached to the diver 3 side.

FIG. 2 shows the appearance of an example of the diver receiver 4. The ultrasonic wave receiving sensor 5 has a belt shape using, for example, a polymeric piezoelectric film (PVDF) or piezoelectric rubber having flexibility, and can be attached to a diver's arm like a wristwatch. The ultrasonic signal received by the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor 5 is amplified and processed by the electric circuit section 6 to an appropriate level. The electric circuit section 6 calculates the linear distance between the mother ship and the diver according to the measurement principle described later, numerically displays the calculation result on the display 7, and also displays an alarm display such as a blinking display based on a command from the mother ship. To do.

The underwater earphone 8 is connected to the electric circuit section 6 so that communication information from a mother ship, which will be described later, can be guided to the diver's ear and a command from the mother ship can be given by an audible sound. As described above, the diver support device according to the present invention has a mode for measuring the linear distance between the mother ship and the diver (hereinafter, referred to as a measurement mode) and a mode for performing one-way communication from the mother ship to the diver (hereinafter, a communication mode). Call)
It has two operation modes:

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal circuit configuration of the onboard device 10. First, the configuration of the onboard device 10 required for the measurement mode will be described. Reference numeral 101 is a crystal oscillator (first oscillation source), and 102 is a temperature sensor used for correcting the temperature characteristic of the oscillation frequency of the crystal oscillator 101. The temperature sensor 102 can be realized by, for example, monitoring a counter electromotive voltage between a transistor emitter and a base during forward constant current driving. The relationship between the oscillation frequency and the temperature of the crystal unit 101 is independently measured in advance, and the relationship is stored in a ROM table (not shown). The signal processing / control unit 103 (first signal processing / control unit) temperature-compensates the oscillation frequency of the first pulse from the crystal unit 101 by using the ROM table, so that the accuracy is about 0.5 PPM or less. A transmission gate signal 104 (distance measuring pulse) having a very accurate repetition period T is created, and the transmission gate signal 104 is sent to the first signal generation circuit 105. In the first signal generation circuit 105,
Carrier wave of ultrasonic wave (frequency f ₀ ) by transmission gate signal 104
Is generated, a so-called tone burst wave 106 is generated, and the tone burst wave 106 is generated by the power amplifier circuit 10.
Send to 7. The power amplifier circuit 107 uses the tone burst wave 1
The power of 06 is amplified to an appropriate level and sent to the ultrasonic transducer 2 for wave transmission. The ultrasonic oscillator 2 uses, for example, a spherical oscillator or a ring oscillator to radiate ultrasonic signals to the surroundings of the mother ship (having no directivity).

Next, the structure required for the communication mode will be described. The operation unit 108 has a function of switching between the measurement mode and the communication mode and setting the content of the command in the communication mode. When the communication mode is set by the operation unit 108, the signal processing / control unit 103 temporarily stops the measurement mode and determines the setting content (for example, an emergency ascending command, a dive elapsed time notification command, etc.) A corresponding code signal 109 is created and the code signal 109 is sent to the second signal generating circuit 110. The second signal generation circuit 110, for example, has three different frequencies f depending on the code signal 109.
FSK (Freque by combination of ₁ , f ₂ and f ₃
ncy Shift Keying) signal 111 is generated, and the FSK signal 111 is sent to the power amplification circuit 107. This FSK signal 111 is also amplified to an appropriate level by the power amplifier circuit 107, and is radiated as an ultrasonic signal by the ultrasonic transducer 2.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the diver receiver 4. The signal received by the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor 5 is amplified by the preamplifier circuit 201 with a fixed gain,
Then, the band pass filter 202 having a wide band characteristic removes unnecessary frequency components. Subsequently, the AGC in which the gain is automatically changed so that the noise level becomes constant
(Automatic gain control) Guided to the circuit 203. Of course, the ultrasonic signal from the mother ship has a level sufficiently higher than the noise level. The output of the AGC circuit 203 is a narrow band pass filter 20 that passes only each of the distance measurement carrier frequency f ₀ and the communication mode frequencies f ₁ , f ₂ and f _3.
3-1, 203-2, 203-3, 203-4, and the respective outputs are further detected by detection circuits 204-1 and 204-.
2, 204-3 and 204-4 are DC detection signals.

First, the operation in the measurement mode will be described.
At the diver receiver 4, it is necessary to generate a signal in synchronization with the transmission gate signal 104 (FIG. 3) of the onboard device 10 at the start of diving. Here, the distance is set to zero by the linear distance reset switch 205 immediately after the diver enters the water.

FIG. 5 shows a shipboard device 10 and a diver receiver 4.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a signal waveform of a main part of FIG. 5, but when the linear distance reset switch 205 is pressed, a single pulse having a rise time of about 1 second shown in FIG. 5a is output. The pulse signal a is sent to the synchronization signal generation circuit 206. On the other hand, at the start of diving when the linear distance reset switch 205 is pressed, the linear distance between the mother ship and the diver is considered to be almost zero, and there is no practical problem, and the detection circuit 20 received at that distance.
The output waveform d of 4-1 is also guided to the synchronization signal generation circuit 206.

5b and 5c, the transmission gate signal 104 and its transmission gate signal 104 in the onboard device 10 are shown.
The tone burst wave 106 is produced by the following, and the repetition period T is 0.2 seconds to 0.5 seconds. Further, in the synchronization signal generation circuit 206 in FIG. 4, the temperature is corrected by the crystal oscillator 207 (second oscillation source), the temperature sensor 208, and the signal processing / control unit 209 in exactly the same manner as the onboard device 10. A high-speed pulse signal e having an accurate repetition period is input to the. The synchronization signal generation circuit 206 operates as a counter, the counter is reset with an output waveform obtained by ANDing the pulse signals a and d, and the pulse signal e becomes a clock pulse.

By the above operation, the synchronizing signal generating circuit 20
6 generates a synchronization signal f (second pulse) that is synchronized with the transmission gate signal b (104), and measures the synchronization signal f for a time lag while the diver is diving (usually 30 to 40 minutes). The output continues to the circuit 210.

The time difference measuring circuit 210 operates as a flip-flop circuit, is set at the rising edge of the synchronizing signal f, and outputs the output waveform h of the detection circuit 204-1 obtained from the received waveform g of the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor 5. The pulse signal i having a pulse width corresponding to the propagation time t (time difference) of the ultrasonic signal from the mother ship to the diver is reset at the rising edge and is output to the signal processing / control unit 209.

The signal processing / control unit 209 outputs the pulse signal i
Pulse width t is measured by a high-speed pulse signal e having an accurate oscillation period, and the linear distance L between the mother ship and the diver is L =
Calculated from c × t, (c is the ultrasonic wave propagation velocity in water),
The calculated value L is sent to the display control unit 211. The display control unit 211 converts the data into a format suitable for the display 7. In this way, the linear distance L is displayed on the display device 7. As the display unit 7, an LCD with low power consumption
Is preferred.

Next, the operation in the communication mode will be described.
In underwater communication with many multipath interference waves,
A highly reliable FSK method is typical. Here, three kinds of frequencies f ₁ , f ₂ , and f ₃ are used, and FS shown in FIG.
The case of using the K signal will be described. When three kinds of frequencies are used in this way, signals (information or commands) can be distinguished by the order of frequencies, and six kinds (three factorials)
Information can be transmitted.

When the operation mode of the onboard apparatus 10 is switched from the measurement mode to the communication mode and a desired command is set, the FSK corresponding to the command desired to be transmitted to the diver.
A signal (for example, signal j) is transmitted from the shipboard device 10. The received signal in the ultrasonic receiving sensor 5 is selected by each of the narrow band pass filters 203-2, 203-3, 203-4, and the detection circuits 204-2, 204-3, 204- are selected.
It is sequentially output from 4. The FSK discrimination circuit 212 discriminates the combination of the frequencies f ₁ , f ₂ and f ₃ in order from these signals, and outputs the discrimination result to the signal processing / control unit 209. The signal processing / control unit 209 displays the result on the display 7 or transmits it to the diver using the underwater earphone 8 depending on the content of the information. For example, in the case of an emergency levitating command, all the indicators 7 are made to blink, and an emergency oscillation sound (continuous sound) is output to the underwater earphone 8.
On the other hand, in the dive elapsed time notification command, for example, intermittent oscillation sound is output to the underwater earphone 8.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiment in which it can operate in two modes, that is, the measurement mode and the communication mode,
The present invention is sufficiently effective even if it has at least the function of the measurement mode.

[0030]

As described above, according to the diver support device of the present invention, the diver himself can always grasp the distance from the mother ship, and it is possible to transmit information from the mother ship such as an emergency levitating command. . Further, since the diver side only receives the ultrasonic signal from the mother ship, the receiver equipped with the diver can be made compact and lightweight. Furthermore, since a flexible polymer voltage filter (PVDF) or piezoelectric rubber is used for the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor on the diver side, there is an advantage that it can be easily mounted on the diver.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the concept of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a diver receiver according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a shipboard device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a diver receiver according to the present invention.

5 is a diagram showing a signal waveform of each part of FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Mother Ship 2 Ultrasonic Transducer 3 Diver 4 Diver Receiver 5 Ultrasonic Wave Receiving Sensor 6 Electric Circuit Section

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A first oscillating source for generating a first pulse of a repeating period T with a predetermined accuracy, and the first oscillating source.
A first signal processing / control unit for receiving a first pulse from the oscillation source and outputting a distance measurement pulse synchronized with the repetition period T, and non-directing into the water as the ultrasonic signal for the distance measurement pulse. A shipboard device for a diver safety support device, comprising: 2. The shipboard device for a diver safety support device according to claim 1, wherein a crystal oscillator having a temperature compensation function in combination with a temperature sensor is used as the first oscillation source. Onboard equipment for diver safety support equipment. 3. A diver receiver for a diver safety support device, which is used in combination with the shipboard device for a diver safety support device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second pulse of the repetition cycle T is generated. A second oscillating source, an ultrasonic wave receiving sensor that receives an ultrasonic wave signal from the wave transmitter, and a reception that processes a received signal from the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor to extract the distance measuring pulse. Section, reset means for synchronizing the second pulse with the extracted distance measuring pulse when the diver starts diving, and the second pulse and the receiving section extracted after the reset by the reset means. And a second signal processing / control unit for calculating a distance by performing a predetermined calculation using the measured time difference. And a display for displaying the calculated distance, the diver receiver. 4. The diver receiver according to claim 3, wherein a crystal oscillator having a temperature compensating function in combination with a temperature sensor is used as the second oscillation source. Onboard equipment for equipment. 5. The diver receiver according to claim 3 or 4, wherein as the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor, a flexible polymeric piezoelectric film or piezoelectric rubber is formed into a wrist belt shape, and a receiver main body is provided. A diver receiver characterized by using an attached one. 6. The diver receiver according to claim 3, wherein the second signal processing / control unit has a function of blinking a display value on the display according to the calculated distance. A diver receiver characterized by having. 7. The diver receiver according to claim 3, wherein the second signal processing / control unit has a function of generating an alarm sound signal according to the calculated distance, A diver receiver comprising an underwater earphone for receiving an alarm sound signal and generating an alarm sound. 8. A first oscillating source that generates a first pulse having a repeating period T with a predetermined accuracy, and one of a distance measuring mode and a communication mode is selected, and a signal according to the selection result is output. And an operating unit for receiving a signal from the operating unit and outputting a distance measuring pulse synchronized with the repeating period T when the distance measuring mode is selected,
When the communication mode is selected, a first signal processing / control unit that outputs a communication signal indicating a command to the diver, and the distance measurement pulse and the communication signal as ultrasonic signals are omnidirectional into water. A shipboard device for a diver safety support device, comprising: a radiating transmitter. 9. The shipboard equipment for a diver safety support device according to claim 8, wherein a crystal oscillator having a temperature compensation function in combination with a temperature sensor is used as the first oscillation source. Onboard equipment for diver safety support equipment. 10. A diver receiver for a diver safety support device, which is used in combination with the shipboard device for a diver safety support device according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the second pulse of the repetition cycle T is generated. A second oscillating source, an ultrasonic wave receiving sensor for receiving an ultrasonic wave signal from the wave transmitter, and a signal for receiving the distance from the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor to process the distance measuring pulse or the communication signal. A receiving unit that extracts a signal, a determination unit that processes the extracted communication signal and determines the content of the command, and the distance measurement that extracts the second pulse when the diver starts diving. Reset means for synchronizing with the pulse for measuring, a time difference measuring means for measuring a time difference between the second pulse and the distance measuring pulse extracted by the receiving unit after reset by the reset means, and the measuring means. A second signal processing / control unit that calculates a distance by performing a predetermined calculation using the determined time difference and that outputs a command display signal according to the determination result of the determination unit, and the calculated value. A diver receiver including a display for displaying a distance or a command based on the command display signal. 11. The diver receiver according to claim 10, wherein a crystal oscillator having a temperature compensating function in combination with a temperature sensor is used as the second oscillation source. Onboard equipment for support equipment. 12. The diver receiver according to claim 10 or 11, wherein a flexible polymeric piezoelectric film or piezoelectric rubber is formed into a wrist belt shape as the ultrasonic wave receiving sensor, and a receiver main body is provided. A diver receiver characterized by using an attached one. 13. The diver receiver according to claim 10, wherein the second signal processing / control unit has a function of blinking a display value on the display according to the calculated distance. A diver receiver characterized by having.