JPH07253793A - Directional beam stabilizing under water transmitting equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the direction of a sound wave beam not to be changed even when an under water transmitting equipment is inclined from a prescribed posture. CONSTITUTION:An inclination sensor 1 is provided on the under water transmitting equipment, an echo sounder transmitter 5 is made to be a phased array type consisting of plural trasducer devices 5-1 to 5-N and phase shifters 3-1 to 3-N are provided corresponding to signals supplied to respective transducer devices 5-1 to 5-N. Then. when the inclination sensor 1 detects the inclination of theta, phases of exciting signals to be impressed on respective transducer devices 5-1 to 5-N are controlled by generating phase shift control signals so that the direction of the sound wave beam is inclined by -theta from a prescribed direction and by supplying them to phase shifters 3-1 to 3-N.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an underwater transmission device which is mounted on a trawl net or the like and ultrasonically transmits data detected in water to a receiver mounted on a ship on the water surface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an underwater transmission device is attached to, for example, a net mouth of a trawl net, and the received data is transmitted by ultrasonic waves to a marine vessel for transmitting information such as the state of fish entering the net, net depth, and temperature information to a marine vessel. The transmission data received by the built-in receiver is processed and the display is confirmed on the color display and other displays.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a conventional underwater transmission device.
21 is the body of the underwater transmission equipment, 22 is a transmitter for underwater transmission, 23
Is a wave transmission directional characteristic of the wave transmitter 22. Normally, the underwater transmission equipment is located at the same depth as the fishnet, and the wave receiver is mounted on a ship and is near the sea surface, so it is diagonally above the underwater transmission equipment. Therefore, the wave-transmitting surface of the wave transmitter 22 is inclined so as to face obliquely upward when the underwater transmission device is mounted horizontally. The transmitted beam is directed in the direction normal to the transmitting surface.

Reference numeral 24 is a transducer of an underwater detection sensor above the underwater transmission equipment, and 25 is a transmission / reception beam thereof.
This detects the school of fish above the net. Reference numeral 26 is a transducer of the lower underwater detection sensor, and 27 is its transmission / reception beam. 28 is a mounting base for mounting the underwater transmission equipment on the net, which is normally mounted horizontally.

[0005]

However, due to the state of the sea, the speed of the tidal current, the speed of the trawl, and the like, the attitude of the underwater transmission equipment attached to the net mouth is tilted from a predetermined state and the direction of the transmission beam is received on the ship. It may deviate significantly from the direction of the vessel. In such a case, there is a problem that good transmission data cannot be received and a so-called missing state occurs.

In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide an underwater transmission device with a posture inclined from a normal state.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an underwater transmission device in which the direction of the transmission beam does not deviate from the direction of the receiver as long as the inclination is within a certain range.

[0007]

The present invention has the following means for achieving the above object. That is, the underwater transmission device of the present invention is an underwater transmission device that carries detected data in the water on ultrasonic waves and transmits the waves to a receiving means at a remote position. A tilt sensor that detects a tilt angle and outputs a tilt angle signal when tilted from a predetermined posture; and a plurality of transducer elements that convert an electric signal including data to be transmitted into ultrasonic waves are arranged. A phased array type ultrasonic wave transmitter; phase shift means for receiving a phase shift control signal, and shifting the phase of an electric signal applied to each of the plurality of conversion elements so as to advance or delay by a constant amount in the order of arrangement And a phase shift control signal for receiving a tilt angle signal and giving a phase shift amount for deflecting the pointing direction of the transmission beam of the ultrasonic wave transmitter by the same angle in a direction opposite to the tilt of the underwater transmission device. Phase shift control means for sending to the means ; A directional beam stabilizing water transmission equipment, characterized by comprising.

[0008]

The operation of the present invention having the above-mentioned means will be described below. In the present invention, a tilt sensor that detects a tilt angle is attached to the underwater transmission device, while the ultrasonic transmitter is a phased array type composed of a plurality of conversion elements, so that the electrical signal applied to each conversion element is By advancing or retarding the phase by a certain amount in the arrangement order of the conversion elements (phase shift), the direction of the transmitted beam can be tilted from the direction normal to the transmitting surface of the transmitter. Then, the tilt angle can be changed by changing the magnitude of the fixed amount (phase shift amount).

In the present invention, the phase shift control means receives the tilt angle signal from the tilt sensor and changes the pointing direction of the transmission beam of the ultrasonic wave transmitter by the same angle in the direction opposite to the tilt of the underwater transmission equipment. A phase shift control signal that gives a phase shift amount to be inclined is given to the phase shift means, and the phase shift means uses the control signal to advance or delay the phase of the electric signal applied to each conversion element by the phase shift amount in the order of arrangement. Since the phase shifts to, the transmitted beam tilts so as to exactly cancel the tilt of the underwater transmission equipment, and as a result, the beam direction does not change, and it does not deviate from the receiver direction.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. The wave transmitter 5 is a phased array type wave transmitter including N conversion elements 5-1 to 5-N. Each conversion element is excited by the excitation signal amplified to the required level by the corresponding transmission amplifier 4-1 to 4-N.

The corresponding phase shifters 3-1 to 3-1 are connected to the respective transmission amplifiers.
The electric signal of the ultrasonic frequency subjected to the phase shift control at 3-N is input. As described above, in the present embodiment, the phase shifter and the transmission amplifier are provided so as to correspond to each conversion element.
It may be provided so as to correspond to a plurality of pieces such as every piece or every three pieces.

The tilt sensor 1 detects the tilt angle of the underwater transmission device and sends a tilt angle signal to the phase shift control means 2.
The tilt sensor may be, for example, one using a gyroscope, one using a gas rate sensor, or, as another simple example, one using a weight and a potentiometer.

The phase shift control means 2 sends a phase shift control signal to each phase shifter, which gives a phase shift amount for tilting the transmitted beam by the same angle in the direction opposite to the tilt of the underwater transmission equipment. Now, the amount of phase shift when the transmitted beam is inclined by θ from the direction normal to the transmitting surface will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, two conversion elements 5-n and 5 are provided.
-(N + 1) is arranged on a straight line with the transmission surface facing the same direction (D direction) at a distance of d, the combined beam direction of the sound waves from the two conversion elements is θ from the D direction to the right. Trying to incline means that the phases of the straight line L are aligned (that is, in phase). This means that the phase of the signal applied to the conversion element 5-n by the amount of phase corresponding to the distance d ′ of the perpendicular from the conversion element 5-n to the straight line L is the electrical signal applied to the conversion element 5- (n + 1). Means to advance the phase of.

In other words, it means that the phase of the electric signal applied to the conversion element 5- (n + 1) may be delayed from the phase of the electric signal applied to the conversion element 5-n by the phase amount. By the way, the distance d'of the perpendicular line is expressed by Equation 1, and if this distance d'is converted into the phase amount φ, Equation 2 is obtained.

[0016]

[Equation 1]

[0017]

[Equation 2]

That is, in FIG. 2, when the beam direction is to be tilted from the D direction to the right by the angle θ, the phase of the excitation signal applied to the right conversion element 5- (n + 1) is expressed by the equation (2). It is good to delay by the angle φ.
On the contrary, when it is desired to incline from the D direction to the left by the angle θ, it is preferable to delay the phase of the excitation signal applied to the left conversion element 5-n by the phase angle φ represented by the mathematical expression 2.

Although the above description has been made in the case where there are two conversion elements, in general, even when two or more conversion elements are arranged on a line at equal intervals d, two adjacent conversion elements will be described. 2 applies, for example, when it is desired to incline to the right by θ, when the two adjacent conversion elements are focused, the excitation phase of the conversion element on the right side is delayed by the phase angle φ calculated by Equation 2. It should be done.

This means that the first conversion element is φ and the second conversion element is 2 toward the right side with respect to the leftmost conversion element.
φ, the third conversion element is 3φ, and generally, the n-th conversion element is generally nφ, and so on, the phase shift is performed so that the phase delay increases by φ. The transmitted beam will be tilted to the right by θ.

By the same reason, if the phase is shifted so that the phase advances by φ, the transmitted beam will be tilted to the left by θ.
It should be noted that in the above description, the left and right are up and down when the conversion elements are arranged in the up and down direction.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 3, the predetermined posture of the underwater transmission device is horizontal, and the normal direction N of the transmitting surface of the wave transmitter 5 at that time is the direction of the wave receiver. In this case, when the underwater transmission device has no inclination, the transmitted beam B _{N in the} direction N is formed, but when the underwater transmission device is inclined downward by θ, the transmitted beam is directed upward by θ above the transmitted beam B _N. A wave beam B _U is formed and as a result the transmitted beam is in the direction N
The beam will not come off the receiver.

Similarly, when the underwater transmission device is tilted upward by θ, a transmitted beam B _D is formed which is downward by θ from the transmitted beam B _N, and as a result, the transmitted beam is also directed in the direction N and received. The beam will not come off the vessel.

The phase shift control means of FIG. 1 uses the phase shifter 3-1 as a reference, and the first phase shifter 3-2 shifts the phase of φ and the second phase shifter 3-3 shifts the phase of 2φ. Phase shifter, generally nφ phase shifter in the n-th phase shifter 3- (n + 1)
It is applied to the electric signal added from 11 and sent to the corresponding transmission amplifier.

The data transmitted in this embodiment includes the detection information of the upper detection sensor 6, the detection information of the lower detection sensor 7,
It is net depth data of the depth gauge 8 and temperature data of the water temperature gauge 9. These data are collected by the data processing unit 10, converted into a transmission format and sent to the modulator 11.

An electric signal of ultrasonic frequency is sent from the ultrasonic frequency oscillator 12 to the modulator 11. The ultrasonic electric signal is modulated by the transmission data from the data processing unit 10, and the modulated electric signal. To each phase shifter.

[0027]

As described above, in the underwater transmission equipment of the present invention, when the underwater transmission equipment is tilted, the direction of the transmission beam from the wave transmitter is set to the same angle as the tilt of the underwater transmission equipment. Even if the underwater transmission device is tilted due to various circumstances, the direction of the transmitted beam itself will not change, and it will deviate from the direction of the receiver mounted on the ship on the water surface. This is advantageous in that there will be no missing measurement due to the misdirection of the transmitted beam. Further, since the transmitted beam does not come off, it can be made into a sharp beam, and there is an advantage that the gain of the transmitted beam can be increased and the S / N can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory principle diagram that the direction of a transmitted beam is changed by changing the excitation phases of a plurality of conversion elements.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a change in direction of a transmission beam in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conventional underwater transmission device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 inclination sensor 2 phase shift control means 3-1 to 3-N phase shifter 4-1 to 4-N transmission amplifier 5 wave transmitter 5-1 to 5-N conversion element 6 upper detection sensor 7 lower detection sensor 8 depth Total 9 Water temperature gauge 10 Data processing unit 11 Modulator 12 Ultrasonic frequency oscillator 21 Underwater transmission equipment main body 22 Transmitter 23 Transmitted directional characteristics 24 Upper underwater detection sensor 25 Transmitted / received beam 26 Lower underwater detection sensor 27 Transmission / reception Wave beam 28 mount

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI technical display area H04B 11/00 D // G01S 7/523

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An underwater transmission device for transmitting detected data in water to ultrasonic waves and transmitting the wave to a receiving means at a remote position; the underwater transmission device having a predetermined posture A tilt sensor that detects the tilt angle when it tilts and outputs a tilt angle signal; a phased array type super array in which a plurality of conversion elements that convert electrical signals containing data to be transmitted into ultrasonic waves are arranged. An acoustic wave transmitter; a phase shift means for receiving a phase shift control signal, and shifting the phase of an electric signal applied to each of the plurality of conversion elements so as to advance or delay a certain amount in the order of arrangement; In response to this, the phase shift control signal for giving the phase shift amount for deflecting the pointing direction of the transmission beam of the ultrasonic wave transmitter by the same angle in the direction opposite to the inclination of the underwater transmission equipment is sent to the phase shift means. And phase control means; Directional beam stabilizing water transmission equipment according to claim.