JPH11180393A - Diving apparatus system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a diving apparatus system which can lengthen time required by under-water operations by reducing the reciprocating operation of a diving apparatus itself for the under-water and/or maritime transportation, and can enhance operating performance. SOLUTION: A diving apparatus 1 is to be brought into an engaging condition with an engaging trestle 11 so as to be launched over the sea, and lifted up. The engaging trestle 11 is provided with a material holding part 11a, and concurrently, a suspension cable 3 connected only with the engaging trestle 11 is provided. Besides, a hoisting wire winch 5 tracting the suspension cable 3 is provided for a mother ship 4 at its deck side. For this reason, the engaging trestle 11 can be lowered down and lifted up independently from the diving apparatus 1. Therefore, while the diving apparatus 1 is being continuously operated under- water, the engaging trestle 11 is alone lifted up over the sea so as to allow new material 15 to be newly supplemented to the material holding part 11a, and the material can thereby be transported under-water again.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a submersible used for seabed exploration and the like, and more particularly to a submersible system including a fitting stand used for landing and unloading work of the submersible. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A submersible has been developed for undersea exploration and undersea work. Specifically, it is used for observing an object in an academic seafloor exploration plan, installing various sensors, and collecting a sample of seafloor sediment.
Submersibles have become an essential technical component in performing these and other subsea operations. Particularly in recent years, submersibles have been researched and developed to enable deeper sea work, long work on the sea floor, and even efficient work by manned submersibles. Submersibles are constantly being upgraded to meet their needs. Under such circumstances, various types of submersibles with forms and functions suitable for the purpose of each submarine work are provided, but among them, complicated work on the seabed is required. Large submersibles have been developed that are capable and have various functions.

[0003] By the way, as described above, in general, the tether cable 2 and the hanging cable 3 are directly engaged with the diving machine 1 as shown in FIG. The operation is performed by unwinding and winding the suspension cable 3 by a lifting cable winch 5 mounted on the mother ship 4. The tether cable 2 is connected to the mother ship 4
Winding and unwinding are performed by the upper cable drum winch 6, and the submerged vehicle 1 is connected. The tether cable 2 is provided for transmitting observation information from the submersible 1, supplying power to the submersible 1, and transmitting command signals from the mother ship 4 to the submersible 1. Incidentally, in order to guide the vertical movement of the submersible 1 at the time of landing and recovery, a guide cable 7 and a winch 8 are provided on the mother ship 4 and a mount 9 fitted to the submersible 1.
Is provided.

[0004] As shown in FIG. 3, the underwater mount 10 is fitted to avoid danger of collision between the submersible 1 and the underwater mount 10 due to shaking during landing and unloading of the submersible 1. There is also a configuration in which the submersible 1 performs landing and recovery in a state in which the submersibles 1 are kept together. In this case, the diving machine 1 is connected to the tether cable 2 and the underwater gantry 6 is connected to the hanging cable 3. Therefore, the landing and recovery operations of the submersible 1 and the underwater gantry 6 fitted thereto are performed by unwinding and winding the hanging cable 3 and the tether cable 2. By doing so, it is possible to avoid the danger of collision between the underwater gantry 10 and the submersible 1 due to the sway near the sea surface that occurs during the landing and unloading work. Incidentally, in the following description, in the present specification, cables (2, 3) enabling landing and recovery of the submersible 1 as described above, a mother ship 4, a winch 5 for a hoisting cable, a cable drum winch 6, a submersible mount One system composed of nine or the like will be collectively called a submersible system.

[0005]

However, the submersible system as described above has some problems. This is as shown below. In general,
There is a limit on the weight of materials that can be mounted on a submersible. This means that, for example, when the work in the sea is a sensor installation work or the like, and it is necessary to transport a plurality of sensors to the seabed, the amount of mounted sensors in one dive work is determined, This means that the submersible has to make round trips between the sea and the sea, depending on the total number of sensor installations planned at the beginning of the operation. Therefore, the installation work plan has to make a work plan that includes the round-trip time between the sea and the sea in advance, which is an obstacle to performing an efficient work. That is, in the conventional submersible system, there was a problem that the time required for performing the effective undersea operation could not be sufficiently secured because the underwater operation time by the submersible had to be shortened.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to eliminate the reciprocating operation of the submersible between the sea and the sea, thereby making it possible to increase the time of the underwater work. It is an object of the present invention to provide a submersible system that is capable of improving workability.

[0007]

The present invention adopts the following means to solve the above-mentioned problems. That is, a diving machine system according to the present invention is a diving machine system including a diving machine, and a fitting gantry provided with a material holding portion that is used for landing and recovering the diving device and that can load a material. Wherein the fitting stand is configured to be able to reciprocate between the sea and the sea independently of the submersible.

According to this, since the fitting stand is provided with a material holding portion and is configured to be able to reciprocate between the sea and the sea independently of the diving machine, the fitting stand is provided. This allows the fitting cradle to be independently raised and lowered while the submersible is working underwater. In other words, it is possible to transport goods between the sea and the middle of the sea while performing the work of the submersible.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, when the same reference numerals are used to designate the same constituent elements as those of the conventional example, the same reference numerals will be used in the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, a hanging cable 3 is connected to a fitting stand 11 and a tether cable 2 is connected to a submersible 1. The fitting gantry 11 corresponds to the underwater gantry 10 in the conventional example (see FIG. 3). The hanging cable 3 connected to the fitting stand 11 is wound around a lifting cable winch 5 provided on the mother ship 4 through a lifting cable pulley 12 at the other end of the connection end. Note that the pulley 12 for a hoisting line is provided at a tip end of a boom crane 13 provided on the mother ship 4. The landing and landing of the submersible 1 is performed by fitting the fitting stand 11 to the submersible 1 and pulling the suspension cable 3 by the rotation of the lifting cable winch 5. The force is transmitted in the order of the cable 3, the fitting stand 11, and the submersible 1, and is achieved by descending and rising.

The above-mentioned fitting stand 11 is also called a launcher, and functions as an underwater launch pad of the submersible 1 after the submersible 1 and the launcher are thrown into the sea by a hanging cable 3 as a primary cable. Is what you do. After the submersible 1 is fired underwater, the submersible 1 moves around the sea floor and the sea while being connected to the tether cable 2 which is a secondary cable. As shown in FIG. It is in a state of passing through the fitting stand 11, that is, the launcher. By the way, this tether cable 2
Is used for supplying power to the submersible 1 and transmitting command signals, as described in the section of the prior art.

The tether cable 2 has a pulley 1 for a tether cable at an end opposite to a connection end with the submersible 1.
4 and wound around a cable drum winch 6. The tether cable pulley 14 and the cable drum winch 6 are provided on the mother ship 4 in the same manner as the suspension rope pulley 8 and the lifting rope winch 5. However, the cable drum winch 6 is provided above the base end of the boom crane 13. The mechanism related to these tether cables 2 is as follows.
It is used for winding and unwinding the tether cable 2. With this function, the extension length of the tether cable 2 is adjusted so that the submersible 1 is not flown out of the activity range due to a tide flow or the like. In addition, among the above mechanisms, the pulley 14 for a tether cable is particularly provided for the purpose of adjusting the curvature of the tether cable 2 and preventing the cable 2 from being damaged.

The fitting stand 11 is provided with a material holding portion 11a. The material holding unit 11a stores materials 15 necessary for the work in response to various underwater works.
Is to be installed. Specific examples of the material 15 include various sensors for exploring the state of the seabed,
A sample collection pipe for enclosing a sample such as seafloor soil and the like is included. By the way, since only the hanging cable 3 is connected to the fitting base 11 as described above, the fitting between the fitting base 11 and the submersible 1 is released, that is, the submersible 1 is submerged underwater. After firing, the fitting gantry 11 alone is capable of vertical movement independently of the movement of the submersible 1.

The submersible 1 is provided with an arm 1a for performing submarine work. With this arm 1a, it is possible to perform various sensor installation work on the sea floor, sample mining work of sea bottom soil and the like, and the like. In addition, this submersible 1
Is equipped with a surveillance camera, a lighting device, a propulsion device, and the like for monitoring work on the sea floor.
The operation of the arm 1a and the propulsion device of the diving machine 1 as described above, and the fitting and releasing work of the fitting fitting base 11 and the diving machine 1 are performed by a control device (not shown) that manages this.
It is provided on the upper part, and various operations can be performed remotely (on the mother ship 4) by an operator operating this control device.

In the submersible system configured as described above, the actual work is performed as follows. In the embodiment described here, a case will be described in which the submersible 1 is assumed to perform an operation of installing a sensor on the sea floor. First, the fitting gantry 11 and the submersible 1 are fitted, and these are landed on the sea surface in this state. The landing is performed by rotating the hoisting cable 3 and the tether cable 2 wound around the hoisting cable winch 5 and the cable drum winch 6 so as to be unwound, respectively.
However, before starting the water landing work, the material holding unit 11a of the fitting stand 11 is preliminarily holding sensors as much as possible.

When the fitting gantry 11 and the diving machine 1 reach a desired depth in the sea, the fitting state of the fitting gantry 11 and the diving machine 1 is released by an operator on the mother ship 4 by remote control. Then, the diving machine 1 repeats the operation of holding the sensor previously mounted on the fitting gantry 11 with the arm 1a and placing the sensor at a desired place. However, this operation can be performed only for the total number of sensors initially mounted on the material holding unit 11a.

Incidentally, the operation of the submersible 1 on the seabed is generally executed very slowly as compared with that on the ground. This is because the high water pressure on the sea floor hinders the movement, and the method of commanding the operation requires remote control on the mother ship 4 and thus requires carefulness.
Therefore, in the sensor installation work described above, the last one of the sensors mounted on the material holding unit 11a is gripped by the arm 1a of the submersible 1 until the sensor is installed at a desired place. Would take some time. In the present embodiment, only the fitting gantry 11 is lifted offshore by winding up the suspension cable 3 in the meantime.

The fitting stand 11 raised to the sea has:
A new sensor is newly loaded on the material holding unit 11a. Also, during the reloading operation,
It is as described above that the sensor installation work by the submersible 1 is continued. Then, when the work of mounting the sensor on the fitting stand 11 at sea is completed, the hanging cable 3 is unwound again and the fitting stand 11 is sent to the seabed. The submersible 1 will continue the installation work of the newly sent sensor. Thereafter, the above operation is repeated until the planned total number of sensors is set.

As described above, by using the submersible system 1 of the present embodiment and the submersible system including the fitting gantry 11 provided with the material holding portion 11a as a main component, the submersible 1 can work on the seabed. During this operation, the fitting gantry 11 is raised to the sea surface, and the material holding portion 11a provided on the fitting gantry 11 can be resupplied with the material 15, so that the work is not interrupted. , It is possible to improve the work efficiency. The submersible 1 on the seabed
It is also possible to take a long working time.

In the present embodiment, the seabed work of the submersible 1 is assumed to be a sensor installation work, but the present invention is not limited to this work.
For example, as mentioned earlier, it may be used for mining work on seabed sediment and the like. In this case, the material 15 mounted on the material holding unit 11a corresponds to a sample collection tube or the like. Also, in other work, the material 15 is appropriately changed and prepared as necessary for the work, but it is easy to assume that the basic operation and work are the same as those described above.

Further, the diving machine 1 in the present embodiment is intended for unmanned operation remotely controlled on the mother ship 4, but the present invention is not particularly limited to this. For example, the submersible 1 may be manned. However, in this case, it is natural that the configuration of the submersible 1 and the control device (not shown) on the mother ship 4 are configured to correspond thereto.

[0022]

As described above, according to the diving vehicle system of the present invention, the fitting stand is provided with the material holding portion, and can reciprocate between the sea and the sea independently of the diving machine. Therefore, even when the submersible is working underwater, it is possible to load the fitting gantry and simultaneously raise and lower the fitting gantry independently. Therefore, it is possible to carry the goods between the sea and the sea in parallel with the work of the diving machine, so that it is possible to improve workability without interrupting a series of work.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a submersible vehicle system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional submersible system.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a conventional submersible system showing another form different from the submersible system shown in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Submersible 11 Fitting stand 11a Material holding part 15 Material

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A submersible system comprising: a diving machine; and a fitting gantry, which is used for landing and recovering the diving vehicle and is provided with a material holding portion on which a material can be mounted. A submersible system, wherein the fitting frame is configured to be able to reciprocate between the sea and the sea independently of the submersible.