JPH0912155A - Relative position measuring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To always grasp relative position relation between a hatch and a vertical boom by arranging a CCD camera and a light-wave range finder so that an aiming direction can be substantially same and measuring position relation to a object from the aiming direction by which the CCD camera can anticipate a prescribed object and a distance measurement value found out by the light-wave range finder. CONSTITUTION: A detection part 2 provided with a light-wave range finder, a CCD camera and an electric stand for adjusting the light axis direction of the camera is mounted on the upper end of a vertical boom 47. The CCD camera is controlled so as to aim an edge 61 of a hatch 59. The detection part 2 is provided with an image processing part and a control part and posture of an electric stand is controlled so that image of the edge 61 can always be in the center of a picture and a relative position measuring device is composed of an automatic tracking type distance sensor. The detection part 2 is provided by every one respectively for the edges 61 of four sides of the hatch 59 and a relative position for the hatch 44 of the vertical boom 48 is found out from the relative position relation to each edge 61 of the detection part 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a relative position measuring device for measuring the direction of an object and the distance to the object, and more particularly, the position of a vertical boom required for automatic operation of a continuous unloader for unloading bulk material from a hold The present invention relates to a relative position measuring device for measuring the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an unloader for unloading bulk materials such as coal and iron ore loaded in bulk in a cargo hold of a ship, it swings horizontally on a main frame running on rails laid parallel to the quay. It is known that a horizontal boom is provided, a vertical boom accommodating a vertical conveyor is provided downward at the tip of the horizontal boom, and a scraping device is provided at the lower end of the vertical boom. To unload loose items in the hold using this unloader, insert a vertical boom vertically from the opening of the hold and move the scraper continuously to reach every corner of the hold. When scraped off and dropped on the load receiving part of the vertical conveyor, the conveyor lifts this loose object vertically, and further the horizontal conveyor installed in the horizontal boom and another conveyor installed in the main frame on the quay. It is supplied to the quayside conveyor via this, and this quayside conveyor conveys it to the stockyard.

In order to unload the loose material in the cargo hold in a short time without leaving damage to the inner wall surface of the cargo hold or internal equipment, the scraping device should be moved in a proper order on a proper track. Need to move. The optimum trajectory and sequence in this case differ depending on the structure of the scraping device, the shape of the cargo hold, the type of cargo, etc., and can be learned by the experience of the operator. For this reason, in the automatic operation of this type of unloader, when an operator manually drives one cycle through a teaching box, the device memorizes the track and automatically reproduces the so-called play. Back control is often chosen.

[0004]

However, the position and attitude of a ship are constantly changing due to differences in load capacity, changes in load amount due to unloading, tides, pitching and rolling of the hull due to wave action, etc. . Therefore, in order to succeed in the automatic operation of the unloader, it is necessary to grasp the ever-changing relative positions of the hold and the unloader and compensate the automatic operation device based on this, but it is difficult to obtain a suitable measuring device. Met.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-116767 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-262432 are intended to measure the relative relationship between a ship or hold and an unloader for automatic operation of the unloader.
The invention is known. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-116767, a horizontal distance sensor is moved up and down along a vertical arm to detect the position of the shortest distance from the vertical arm to the wall, and the position of the hatch is checked. A method of detecting position is disclosed. This method is effective when the thickness of the end portion of the hatch is small and protrudes sharply from other portions, and is used, for example, in a ship of which the hatch cover slides open and closes. However, it is difficult to apply to a hatch having a flip-up type opening / closing mechanism. In addition, it was necessary to insert the sensor itself into the hatch, and it was not possible to avoid the effects of dust, water vapor, etc. filling the hatch.

In JP-A-5-262432, a reflector installed on the hull is automatically tracked by an automatic tracking type distance sensor installed on the land portion of the unloader, and based on a signal from this sensor, the hull and the tip of the unloader are moved relative to each other. A method of estimating the positional relationship is disclosed. In this method,
It is difficult to ensure high accuracy because the worker installs the reflector at a predetermined position on the hull each time the work is unloaded. In addition, since the measurement position is the main unit on land, in order to accurately obtain the position of the vertical boom that hangs down at the end of the horizontal boom, it is necessary to accurately estimate the effect of deflection of the horizontal boom. It was difficult to accurately determine the relative position of.

An object of the present invention is to provide a relative position measuring device capable of constantly grasping a relative positional relationship between a hold and an unloader in order to enable automatic operation of a continuous unloader even if the ship moves during unloading. There is a place to do it. Another object of the present invention is to provide a relative position measuring device that is not easily affected by dust and water vapor in the hold and can perform highly accurate measurement without installing a reflector or the like again. . Still another object of the present invention is to provide an appropriate method of using the above-mentioned relative position measuring device for unloading a bulk material.

[0008]

A relative position measuring device of the present invention comprises an image pickup device, a distance measuring device and a platform, and the platform mounts the image capturing device and the distance measuring device and rotates in at least one direction. The imaging device and the distance measuring device are arranged so that the aiming directions are substantially the same, and the object is determined from the aiming direction in which the imaging device looks into a predetermined object and the distance measurement value obtained by the distance measuring device. It is characterized in that it is configured to measure the positional relationship with. Further, the relative position measuring device of the present invention is an image processing device that performs image processing on the output of the imaging device to measure the amount of displacement of the image of the object from a predetermined position, and reduces the displacement amount. It is preferable to provide a platform control device for controlling the platform.

Further, a monitor device for displaying an image acquired by the image pickup device on the screen and a pointing device for pointing a point in the image are provided, and the object can be pointed on the monitor screen by the pointing device. preferable. It is preferable that the platform is further rotated in the horizontal direction, and is configured to automatically adjust the platform so that the optical axis of the imaging device is substantially vertical to the object. . Further, the relative position measuring device of the present invention,
The imaging device may be a CCD camera and the distance measuring device may be a lightwave distance sensor.

Further, according to the relative position measuring method of the unloader of the present invention, at least two relative position measuring devices of the present invention are mounted on the upper part of the vertical boom of the unloader having the vertical boom hanging in the hold, and each relative position is measured. It is characterized in that the measuring device obtains the attitude of the vertical boom with respect to the hold by using the positional relationship obtained by targeting different edges of the hatch of the hold.

According to the relative position measuring device of the present invention, when the pan head is adjusted so that the target portion is located substantially in the center of the screen based on the image acquired by the image pickup device, the value obtained by the distance measuring device is displayed in the image. The distance to the target part in
By using this distance and the orientation of the imaging device, the relative position between the target and the measuring device can be known. Further, in the case of including an image processing device that processes an output image of an image pickup device to obtain a displacement amount of an image of an object and a platform control device that controls a platform based on the displacement amount, a target and a measurement device are provided. The relative position of can be automatically measured.

Further, when the monitor device for displaying the image acquired by the image pickup device and the pointing device are provided, the operator can directly instruct the target portion according to the situation while observing the screen. Required by the measurement device if the platform is configured to rotate horizontally and the imager is configured to automatically adjust the platform so that the optical axis is substantially perpendicular to the object. The distance becomes the shortest distance between the measuring device and the target portion as it is, and the calculation of the relative position becomes simple. Further, in the relative position measuring device of the present invention, if the image pickup device is a CCD camera and the distance measuring device is a lightwave distance sensor, it is possible to construct an economically highly reliable device.

Further, the relative position measuring method of the unloader of the present invention knows the relative position with respect to the edge obtained by the relative position measuring device mounted on the upper part of the vertical boom of the unloader having the vertical boom hanging in the hold, and at least two The attitude of the vertical boom with respect to the hold can be obtained from the relative position information of the. At this time, since the relative position measuring device can be installed on the upper end portion of the vertical boom, the relative position measuring device is unlikely to be affected by dust and water vapor in the hold, air flow in the opening, and the like. According to the relative position measuring method of the present invention, since a portion existing from the beginning in the hold is targeted, it is not necessary to install the reflector on the hull side for each unloading, and human error is not induced. In addition, the monitoring of the tracking state and the detection of anomalies are highly reliable because it is easy to have a dual monitoring system of image processing and visual inspection by the observer.
Further, since the position and posture of the vertical arm are directly obtained without being affected by the deflection of the horizontal boom, the trajectory during the scraping operation can be optimized without being affected by the change in the load capacity or the movement of the hull. .

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram for explaining an embodiment of a relative position measuring device of the present invention. As shown in Figure 1,
The relative position measuring apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a detection unit 2, an image processing unit 3, and a control unit 4. The detection unit 2 is composed of a light wave range finder 11, a CCD camera 12 and an electric camera platform 13, and the light wave range finder 11 and the CCD camera 12 are the electric camera platform 1
3 A mirror 14 is installed on the front surface of the optical distance meter 11, and a half mirror 15 is provided on the optical axis of the CCD camera 12. The mirror 14 and the half mirror 15 are set in a relational position such that the beam light emitted from the optical distance meter 12 is reflected by the mirror 14 and enters the half mirror 15, and propagates on the optical axis of the CCD camera 12. There is. Further, the half mirror 15 is surface-treated so as to selectively reflect the wavelength component of the light beam emitted by the optical distance meter 11.

The beam emitted by the optical distance meter 11 is reflected by the mirror 14 and the half mirror 15 and is reflected by the CCD camera 12.
The object 10 on the optical axis is illuminated. Of the light reflected on the surface of the object 10, the light returning on the optical axis is partially reflected by the half mirror 15 and is reflected by the mirror 1.
The light is projected on the beam No. 4, totally reflected, and then returned to the optical distance meter 11. The light wave range finder 11 obtains the distance to the target from the time when the light beam travels back and forth and outputs the corresponding distance signal. As the optical distance meter 11, it is preferable to use a pulse type that directly obtains the round-trip time using a strong laser pulse having a short time width so that measurement can be performed without providing a reflecting mirror or the like at the aiming position. . Of course, when the measurement conditions permit, it is needless to say that a more accurate phase difference measurement type optical distance meter can be used.

On the other hand, the CCD camera 12 captures the light from the object passing through the half mirror 15 to generate a two-dimensional image and outputs a video signal. It also has a function to adjust the zoom, focus and iris remotely. The electric pan head 13 has two orthogonal drive shafts 16 (only one axis is shown in the figure), and the AC / DC servo motor 1
7 driven. The AC / DC servomotor 17 is driven by the pulse train output from the control unit 4. The rotation angle of each shaft 16 is output as an absolute value based on a predetermined position by an attached absolute encoder 18. When installing the detector 2 outdoors, especially when installing it on the vertical boom part of the unloader for lifting loose items, a camera with a waterproof and dustproof structure is provided on the electric platform to house the camera and the optical rangefinder. However, it is preferable to further include a wiper, a defroster, and a cooling fan for wiping the transparent shield surface on the front surface of the housing. This is because it is necessary not only to receive rainwater outdoors but also to prevent damage to precision cameras and rangefinders due to dust, high temperature steam, etc. generated from inside the hold.

The image processing unit 3 processes the video signal output from the CCD camera 12, detects the aiming position, and detects the displacement from the optical axis of the CCD camera. The optical axis of the CCD camera is represented in the screen displaying the image of the CCD camera as a fixed reference position such as the center of the screen. The image processing unit 3 includes an image preprocessing unit 21, a pattern storage memory 22, a characteristic pattern extraction unit 23, a pattern displacement calculation unit 24, and a focus adjustment unit 25. The image preprocessing unit 21 is a CCD
A video signal from the camera 12 is input, and signal processing is performed as a preparation for extracting the specified characteristic portion from the screen. As such a signal processing method, a differential method that calculates the differential of the image signal to detect a sudden change in brightness, or a density that detects a characteristic part by projecting and adding the density signal in the screen axis direction The projection addition method and the like are known. The optimum processing method is selected according to the optical properties of the characteristic portion to be actually specified.

The pattern storage memory 22 stores the image feature of the aiming portion 10 designated in advance as a criterion. The characteristic pattern extraction unit 23 uses the image preprocessing unit 21.
The result obtained by signal processing in the pattern storage memory 22
It is determined which part on the screen is the image of the aiming part by comparing with the judgment standard stored in. Further, the pattern displacement calculation unit 24 calculates the displacement between the reference position in the screen representing the optical axis and the aiming position determined by the characteristic pattern extraction unit 23, and outputs a displacement signal representing the displacement amount. If the amount of displacement is zero, the aiming position is on the optical axis, so the distance to the aiming position can be obtained by a light wave rangefinder. In addition, the focus adjustment unit 25 determines the quality of the image obtained by the image preprocessing unit 21 and remotely controls the zoom / focus / iris of the CCD camera 12 so as to obtain an appropriate image that is clearer and has less noise. To do.

The control unit 4 comprises a three-dimensional position calculation unit 31, a control amount calculation unit 32, and a servo amplifier 33. The displacement signal of the aiming portion output from the image processing unit 3 and the aiming signal output from the detection unit 2 are provided. By inputting the distance signal to the portion 10 and the rotation angle signal of the drive shaft 16, the posture of the electric platform 13 is controlled to aim at the target aiming portion 10 and the relative position of the aiming portion 10 is represented. Outputs dimensional position data. The three-dimensional position calculation unit 31 includes a pattern displacement calculation unit 24.
The input signal is the displacement signal of the aiming portion, the distance signal from the lightwave rangefinder 11, and the rotation angle signal from the absolute encoder 18. Then, when the optical axis of the CCD camera 12 is deviated from the target aiming portion 10 based on the displacement signal of the aiming portion, the amount of deviation is evaluated, quantified, and transmitted to the control amount calculator 32. When the displacement amount can be ignored, the distance signal and the rotation angle signal are used to calculate the three-dimensional position of the aiming portion 10 with respect to the detection unit 2 and output the three-dimensional position signal. The control amount calculation unit 32 inputs a signal indicating the amount of displacement of the aiming portion 10 and calculates the control amount for moving to the reference position on the screen. The control amount is calculated based on the control theory according to an optimal algorithm according to the purpose, such as reaching the target position in the shortest time or in the minimum overshoot amount. Servo amplifier 33
Converts the control signal provided by the control amount calculator 32 into a drive signal of a level required to drive the AC / DC motor 17, and supplies the drive signal.

In this embodiment, the mirror 14 and the half mirror 15 are used in order to match the emission beam from the optical rangefinder 11 with the optical axis of the CCD camera 12, but the mirror 14 is omitted and the emission beam of the optical rangefinder is omitted. It is also possible to irradiate the half mirror 15 directly to make both optical axes coincide with each other. In addition, when the measurement distance is long or the required measurement accuracy is not high, even if the optical distance meter 11 and the CCD camera 12 are provided side by side so that the optical axes are parallel and the mirror or half mirror is omitted, The influence of the distance between the two optical axes on the measurement can be ignored. With this configuration, the structure of the detection unit is simple and small, and the optical adjustment is easy, so that it is possible to provide an economical and easy-to-handle relative position measuring device.

Next, a method of measuring the relative position of the unloader using the relative position measuring device 1 of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the relative position measuring method of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the arrangement of detectors showing an example of arrangement of the detectors 2 of the relative position measuring apparatus. In FIG. 2, a ship 41 loaded with loose items in a hold is moored to a quay 42, and an unloader 43 on the quay holds a loose item 4 in a hold 44 of the ship 41.
Unloading 5. The unloader 43 includes a main frame 46 that runs on rails laid on the quay, a vertical boom 47, and a horizontal boom 48 that extends from the main frame 46 and supports the vertical boom 47. Vertical boom 47
A control room 49 consisting of an electric room and a driver's cab is provided on the upper part of the vehicle, and an operator gets into the room and operates the unloader 43 while observing the inside of the hold directly or via a monitor.

The vertical boom 47 has a scraping device 50 at its tip.
Is attached. The vertical boom 47 has a rotatable joint 51 in the middle thereof, and here, the boom 5 on the tip side is
The scraping device 50 attached to the tip of the boom 52 can reach all the corners of the hold 44 by bending and rotating 2.

The scraping device 50 is equipped with a bucket wheel 53, scraping off the bulk goods 45 accumulated in the hold by the rotation of the wheel and placing it on a vertical conveyor (not shown) provided in a vertical boom 47. Drop it. The scraps 45 scraped off are conveyed to a quay conveyor (not shown) on the quay 42 via a vertical conveyor, a horizontal conveyor (not shown) provided in the horizontal boom 48, or the like.

On the upper end of the vertical boom 47, four sets of detection units 2 of the relative position detection device 1 are provided, with their optical axes facing back to back, as shown in FIG. The optical distance meter 11 and the CCD camera 12 of the detection unit 2 are housed in a dustproof / waterproof housing and mounted on an electric pan head 13 having a rotary shaft 16 in horizontal and vertical directions. The electric camera platform 13 can adjust the direction of the optical axis vertically and horizontally by remote control. CCD camera 1
2 has a zoom / focus / iris function that can be controlled remotely. A wiper is provided on the transparent shield on the front surface of the housing.

The other end of the horizontal boom 48 has a counter balance 57 for canceling the load of the vertical boom 47 and the like.
Is provided. The horizontal boom 48 has a vertical shaft 58 provided on the main frame 46 for carrying the vertical boom 47 to the hatch 59 of the hold 44 to be unloaded.
The vertical boom 47 can be rotated horizontally around the shaft and the vertical boom 47 can be inserted into the target hatch 59 and pivoted about the horizontal shaft 60 in the vertical direction to adjust the depth. Can be done.

FIG. 4 is a system schematic diagram showing the configuration of the relative position measuring apparatus 1 used in the relative position measuring method of this embodiment together with the peripheral circuits. Vertical boom 4 as shown in FIG.
At the upper end of 7, lightwave rangefinder 11 and CCD camera 12
And four detectors 2 (only two of which are shown in the drawing) are mounted, each of which has an electric pan head 13 for adjusting the optical axis direction of the camera. CCD camera 12 is edge 6 of hatch 59
It is controlled to aim at 1. Hatch 59 edge 6
Reference numeral 1 denotes a part unique to the hold 44, which is not only suitable for grasping the relative relationship between the hold 44 and the vertical boom 47, but is also prominent as an optically surrounding part when taken by the CCD camera 12. Since it has a difference, it is most suitable as an aiming target. The detection unit 2 includes the image processing unit 3 and the control unit 4, and by these functions, the attitude of the electric pan head 13 can be controlled so that the image of the edge 61 is always in the center of the screen. The position measuring device 1 constitutes an automatic tracking type distance sensor having an automatic tracking function. As shown in FIG. 3, four detectors 2 are provided for each of the four edges 61 of the hatch 59, and a total of four detectors 2 are provided. From the relationship, the relative position of the vertical boom 47 with respect to the hold 44 is obtained.

In the electric room of the control room 49, an arithmetic control unit 63 and a communication control unit 64 are provided together with a circuit unit 62 including an image processing unit 3 and a control unit 4 corresponding to the relative position measuring device 1. The arithmetic and control unit 63 integrates the four three-dimensional position signal outputs supplied from the four relative position measuring unit circuit units 62 to determine the position and orientation of the unloader 43, and based on this, the scratches stored in advance are stored. The optimum trajectory of the scraping device 50 obtained by appropriately correcting the take-out pattern is calculated, and the information is transmitted to the unloader control device 65. Further, the communication control device 64 uses the relative position measuring device circuit unit 62.
And the output of the arithmetic and control unit 63 is transmitted at high speed to an external device.

Further, the interface device 6 is provided in the driver's cab.
6 is installed and connected to the communication control device 64 by a communication path. Through the interface device 66, the monitor device 6
7, a pointing device 68 such as a mouse or a man-machine interface using a control stick 69. The monitor device 67 is each CCD
The image acquired by the camera 12 can be displayed, and the operator can monitor the image to confirm that the operation is being performed correctly. At the same time, the pointing device 68 can be used to specify an appropriate position in the image to allow the system to operate. You can teach the position to aim. In addition, the operator is a control stick 69
Can be used to manually adjust the platform 13. Here, the control room 49 is divided into an electric room and a driver's cab for the convenience of management. One room may serve as both, and each part of the apparatus may be housed in either. It goes without saying that it is possible.

The arithmetic and control unit 63 includes a relative position calculator 7
0, unloader attitude calculation unit 71, pan head left / right angle control unit 7
2. A scraping pattern database 73 and an unloader control amount calculator 74. The relative position calculation unit 70 uses the edge 6 supplied from the four relative position measuring device circuit units 62.
The vertical boom 4 receives the 3D position information of 1 and synthesizes it.
7 and the relative position of the boat hatch 59, that is, the hatch 59
The vertical position and the inclination of the vertical boom 47 and the insertion depth are calculated with reference to.

Since the ship 41 is moored and is unlikely to rotate about the vertical axis, the square formed by the edge 61 may not rotate with respect to the ground, but the horizontal boom 48
Since the direction of the arrow changes according to the movement of the vertical boom 47 or the main frame 46, the left-right angle at which the CCD camera 12 faces the edge 61 changes. If the optical axis of the CCD camera 12 is not orthogonal to the edge 61,
It is necessary to correct the calculated value in order to find the correct distance between the vertical boom 47 and the edge 61. Therefore, in order to accurately measure the distance between the edge 61 and the detection unit 2 of the relative position measuring device 1 by the measuring method of the present invention, the CCD
It is desirable to adjust the left and right angles so that the optical axis of the camera 12 is orthogonal to the extending direction of the edge 61.

The unloader attitude calculation unit 71 is perpendicular to each edge 61 of the hatch 59 of the hold 44 to be unloaded from the docking position of the ship 41, the position on the quay of the unloader 43, and the extending direction of the horizontal boom 48. The posture of the boom 47 is calculated.

The pan / tilt head left / right angle control unit 72 controls the rotation of each electric pan / tilt head 13 about the vertical axis in accordance with the direction of the vertical boom 47 calculated by the unloader attitude calculation unit 71, and CC
The left and right angles are adjusted so that the optical axis of the D camera 12 is orthogonal to the extension direction of the edge 61. The left and right angles of the platform 13 may be controlled for each platform, but since the hatch 59 has a generally rectangular shape, in order to make the CCD camera 12 face the edge 61, all the four detectors 2 are arranged. All you have to do is shake the same angle in the same direction. Therefore, instead of sending the same control signal to each electric platform 13 and moving them in the same manner, a mechanism that mechanically changes the direction by the same amount may be used. The control signal of the pan / tilt head left / right angle control unit 72 is transmitted to the control unit 4 of the relative position measuring device 1, and the pan / tilt head drive axis control amount calculation unit 32 and the servo amplifier provided in each control unit 4 are provided. You may make it control via 33. In this case, there is an advantage that the system configuration is organized and wiring and the like are simplified.

The optimum scraping pattern calculated in advance is stored in advance in the scraping pattern database 73. The optimum pattern depends on the form of the hold, the type of cargo loaded, the stage of unloading, and other conditions, and it has a strong empirical factor. The pattern may be stored as a form of a sequence control program or a numerical control program, or a method in which an operator teaches using a teaching box may be used.

The unloader control amount calculator 74 determines the position of the unloader main frame 46 based on the three-dimensional position information of the vertical boom 47 by the relative position calculator 70 and the optimum scraping pattern supplied from the scraping pattern database 73. The index for optimally adjusting the orientation of the horizontal boom 48, the height of the vertical boom 47, the three-dimensional position of the scraping device 50, and the like are calculated and transmitted to the unloader control device. The unloader control device causes the unloader 43 to perform the optimum scraping work by using these pieces of information.

Next, the operation procedure of the relative position measuring method of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an operation procedure. When starting the work, the operator specifies the ship name of the ship 41 to be unloaded and the hatch number of the hold 44 for unloading, and inputs it to the arithmetic and control unit 63 via an appropriate input device (step 1). The arithmetic and control unit 63 stores in advance the data concerning the ship and the hold and the data concerning the optimum scraping pattern corresponding to the hold in the scraping pattern database 73, and based on these input information, the position and shape of the hold 44, the hatch size,
The scraping pattern is retrieved and extracted from the database and set in the unloader control amount calculation unit 74 (step 2). Ship 4
After mooring No. 1, the unloader 43 is manually operated to move the scraping portion 47 onto the work hatch 59 (step 3).

The operator manually adjusts the vertical and horizontal angles of the camera with the control stick while observing the image captured by the CCD camera 12 on the monitor 67, and catches the hatch edge 61 facing the CCD camera 12 on the screen. (Step 4). The image of the edge 61 in the screen is taught to the apparatus using the pointing device 68, and the lock button is pressed to store the characteristics on the signal (step 5). The operator performs the same adjustment and operation for all the cameras of the four sets of relative position measuring devices 1. In this way, each camera 12
The measurement is started after determining the judgment criteria for each.

The measurement is automatically performed by the following procedure. The CCD camera 12 captures an image (step 1
1). The image signal is sent to the image preprocessing unit 21, and the characteristic pattern extraction unit 23 extracts the characteristic signal included in the image signal by a method such as a differentiation method or a density projection addition method (step 12), and the pattern displacement calculation unit 24. At step 13, the position of the edge 61 is detected in accordance with the above judgment criteria. Based on the information of the edge position in the image, the depression angle (vertical angle) of the platform 13 is adjusted so that the image of the edge 61 comes to the center of the screen (step 14). In this way, the target edge 61 is placed on the optical axis of the CCD camera 12.
When they are set, the distance is measured by the lightwave range finder 11 (step 15).

The image of the edge 61 appears in the screen in such a manner that portions having different brightness from the surroundings are continuous in the horizontal direction, and there is no significant change in the horizontal direction. Therefore, the image processing is performed based on the change in brightness in the vertical direction. When the CCD camera 12 is aimed by this method, it becomes necessary to correct the distance obtained when the optical axis and the extension direction of the edge 61 are not orthogonal to each other based on the intersection angle. Therefore, the optical axis of the CCD camera 12 and the edge 6
In order to secure the vertical relationship of 1, the left and right angles of the electric pan head 13 are separately controlled so that the detection unit 2 faces the edge 61. As described above, since the ship 41 is moored, it can be considered that rotation around the vertical axis does not occur. Further, since the vertical boom 47 is fixed to the horizontal boom 48 and the detection unit 2 is fixed to the vertical boom 47, the direction of the detection unit 2 facing the edge 61 can be determined from the attitude of the unloader 43 itself. The unloader posture calculation unit 71 monitors the left and right angles of the horizontal boom 48 (step 16), determines an appropriate left and right angle based on necessary information (step 17), and sets the electric pan head 13 to take that angle.
(Step 18). In addition, the platform 13 determined in step 18 and the relative positional relationship determined in step 15
The three-dimensional positional relationship between the edge 61 and the vertical boom 47 is calculated from the left and right angles of the (step 19).

With respect to the other three sets of detectors 2, the three-dimensional positional relationship with the edges 61 facing each other is calculated by following the same measurement procedure. Relative position calculation unit 70
However, by integrating the information from these four relative position measuring devices 1, the attitude of the vertical boom 47 with respect to the hold 44 or the positional relationship between the hold 44 and the vertical boom 47 is calculated and confirmed (step 20), The measured value is transmitted to the unloader control amount calculation unit 74 (step 21). After that, in the measurement procedure, the CCD camera 12 captures an image again (step 11), and the same process is repeated thereafter to obtain a new measurement value.

The continuous unloader device 43 receives the above-described data for accurately determining the position of the vertical boom 47, and according to this data, the position of the main frame 46 and the horizontal boom 48 while correcting the scraping pattern being executed at any time. , The insertion depth of the vertical boom 47, the position of the scraping device 50, the rotation of the bucket wheel 53, and the like are controlled to advance the work of unloading the loose object 45. Although the four relative position measuring devices 1 are provided in the above-described embodiment, the shape of the target hatch 59 is clear in advance. Therefore, the relative position measuring device 1 only needs to have two adjacent ones. , And the other two groups have a function of increasing the reliability of the measurement result as a redundant part.

[0041]

According to the relative position measuring device of the unloader of the present invention, the direction of the object is obtained by the image pickup device, and the relative position is obtained by obtaining the distance by the light wave range finder. Therefore, the mechanism of the measuring device is simpler. Can be converted. Also, while observing the screen of the CCD camera, you can select the aim of the optical rangefinder,
It enables proper distance measurement according to the situation. In addition, since it is possible to select a part that is pre-installed on the target object as the aiming position, it is not necessary for the employee to attach a target reflector to the target object each time measurement is performed, and there is an artificial error in the measurement. There is no room. According to the relative position measuring device of the present invention, the object can be captured as an image and constantly displayed on the monitor screen. Therefore, a dual monitoring system for image processing and visual confirmation by the surveillance staff can be taken, and the tracking state can be monitored and Anomalies can be detected and the measurement reliability is high.

According to the relative position measuring method of the unloader of the present invention, the position and attitude of the ship can be determined by the difference in the load capacity, the change in the load amount due to the unloading, the ebb and flow of the tide, and the pitching and rolling of the hull due to the action of waves. Even if it changes, the relative attitude of the horizontal boom with respect to the hold is always obtained accurately, so that the unloader can be automatically operated without the scraping device colliding with the inner wall of the hold. In addition, the distance detection device can be installed at a position higher than the hatch opening of the cargo hold above the vertical arm, and the measurement result is not easily affected by dust, water vapor, and air flow generated during unloading.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a relative position measuring device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a relative position measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an arrangement example of a detection unit of the relative position measuring device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a system schematic diagram showing the configuration of a relative position measuring device in the relative position measuring method of the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an operating procedure of the relative position measuring device according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Relative position measuring device 2 Detection part 3 Image processing part 4 Control part 10 Target object 11 Lightwave distance meter 12 CCD camera 13 Pan head 14 Mirror 15 Half mirror 16 Rotation axis 17 AC / DC motor 18 Absolute encoder 21 Image preprocessing part 22 Pattern storage memory 23 Characteristic pattern extraction unit 24 Pattern displacement calculation unit 25 Focus adjustment unit 31 Three-dimensional position calculation unit 32 Control amount calculation unit 33 Servo amplifier 41 Ship 42 Wharf 43 Unloader 44 Ship hold 45 Bulk object 46 Main frame 47 Vertical boom 48 Horizontal Boom 49 Control room 50 Scraping device 51 Joint part 52 Boom 53 Bucket wheel 57 Counter balance 58 Vertical axis 59 Hatch 60 Horizontal axis 61 Edge 62 Relative position measuring device circuit part 63 Arithmetic control device 64 Communication control device 65 A Loader control device 66 Interface device 67 Monitor 68 Pointing device 69 Control stick 70 Relative position calculation unit 71 Unloader attitude calculation unit 72 Pan head left / right angle control unit 73 Scraping pattern database 74 Unloader control amount calculation unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Takao Kanamaru 1-1 Kawasaki-cho, Akashi-shi, Hyogo Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. Akashi Factory (72) Inventor Mamoru Furuta 1-1-1 Kawasaki-cho, Akashi-shi, Hyogo Kawasaki Heavy Industries Akashi Plant Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yugo Nakagami 1-3-1, Higashikawasaki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Kobe headquarters (72) Inventor Takashi Nakano 1 Higashi-kawasaki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo 1 to 3 Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Kobe Head Office

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An imaging device, a distance measuring device, and a pan head for mounting the imaging device and the distance measuring device and rotating in at least one direction, wherein the aiming directions of the imaging device and the distance measuring device are substantially the same. A relative position measuring device which is arranged so as to be the same, and which measures the positional relationship with the target object from the aiming direction in which the imaging device looks into a predetermined target object and the distance measurement value obtained by the distance measuring device. 2. An apparatus for measuring an amount of displacement of an image of the predetermined object from a predetermined position by receiving an output of the image pickup device and performing image processing, and the displacement receiving the displacement amount. The relative position measuring device according to claim 1, further comprising a pan head controller that controls the pan head so as to reduce the amount. 3. A monitor device for displaying video output from the image pickup device on a screen and a pointing device for pointing a point in an image, wherein the pointing device is used for pointing the predetermined object. The relative position measuring device according to claim 2, which is characterized in that. 4. The pan / tilt head rotates in vertical and horizontal directions, and the pan / bottom controller controls the optical axis of the imaging device to be substantially perpendicular to an object. The relative position measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the platform is adjusted. 5. The image pickup device is a CCD camera,
The relative position measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the distance measuring device is a light wave distance sensor. 6. The relative position measuring device according to claim 1, wherein at least two relative position measuring devices according to any one of claims 1 to 5 are mounted on an upper part of the vertical boom of an unloader having a vertical boom hanging in a hold. Is a relative position measuring method of an unloader for determining the attitude of the vertical boom with respect to the hold by using the positional relationship obtained by targeting different edges of the hatch of the hold.