KR101515299B1 - Astronomical compass - Google Patents

Abstract

An astronomical compass capable of measuring an azimuth angle between its own coordinates and the position of a celestial body using a celestial object, the celestial compass comprising: a ceiling sensor unit for observing a celestial object and outputting a ceiling measurement value; A top side tracking unit for controlling driving of the top side sensor unit to track the top side sensor unit; A ceiling power database part for storing ceiling power data including positional information of the celestial object with respect to time; A position interlocking unit for receiving a current position coordinate value and a current time position; An arithmetic processing unit for calculating an azimuth angle by calculating my position coordinate value, time information, and ceiling power data based on the near side measurement value; And a display unit for displaying the azimuth angle processed by the operation processing unit.

Description

Astronomical compass

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an astronomical compass, and more particularly, to a astronomical compass capable of measuring an azimuth angle using its own coordinates and the position of a celestial body using a celestial object.

In general, a ship navigating in the sea is used to measure the correct bearing and use it as a ship course to enhance the efficiency of navigation. Therefore, compulsory bearing compass is mandatory for all vessels, so that not only large ships engaged in international voyages but also small vessels operating on the coast, as well as leisure boats, which are currently attracting attention of the market, Has become an indispensable essential item.

Currently, the compass used in the ship is composed of a gyro compass that measures the bearing by driving a mechanical gyroscope, a magnetic compass that uses geomagnetism, and a satellite that receives the radio waves of GPS satellites and calculates the bearing Compass (Satellite Compass) are used. In addition, the development of electronic compass, such as a ring laser gyroscope using light, has been actively promoted to make an IC compact.

The mechanical gyro compass is a compass with an error of about 0.5 ° and is currently considered as a highly reliable instrument at sea. It is obligatory to be mounted on relatively large ships such as vessels and traps engaged in international voyages. However, , 1 year unit) There is a disadvantage that much cost is incurred in maintenance such as disassembling and checking the gyroscope.

In addition to the disadvantage that the accuracy of the magnetic compass is relatively inexpensive, the magnetic compass can be installed at a low cost and has been used for a long time since the past due to the influence of the Earth's geomagnetism, And the like. In addition, there is a problem in that the movement of the compass card in the support liquid is synchronized with the movement of the ship such as the turning of the ship in terms of structure, thereby making it difficult to interlock with the automatic steering apparatus. Further, in order to connect the azimuth signal with other equipment, additional equipment such as a flux-gate is required, which makes it difficult to interwork. Due to such problems, vessels are increasingly excluded as instruments for azimuth measurement.

Recently, the satellite compass using GPS satellites has not been complicated in principle, but is still not universally used in small ships due to its dependence on GPS satellite system and relatively high selling price.

On the other hand, another prior art for the compass is disclosed in the following Patent Document 1: Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2007-0119774 (December 21, 2007) and Patent Document 2: Korean Patent Laid- 0008499 (published on Jan. 26, 2010).

Patent Document 1 provides a theory formula and an algorithm that can automatically update a coefficient of a car while building a new type of rotary digital compass device using a step motor.

In Patent Document 2, the gyro compass is used as the azimuth angle sensor, and the position of the ship is measured using the azimuth, the speed sensor and the position sensor.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2007-0119774 (published on December 21, 2007) Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0008499 (published on Jan. 26, 2010)

However, since the gyro compass and the satellite compass are expensive, it is difficult to apply the gyrocompass and the satellite compass to a small-sized ship. As described above, the digital compass disclosed in Patent Document 1 uses equipment such as a step motor and a magnetic sensor A new algorithm is required and the configuration is complicated.

An object of the present invention is to provide an astronomical compass capable of measuring an azimuth angle by using its own coordinates and the position of a celestial object using a celestial object.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an astronomical compass that can calculate the azimuth angle using the sun in daytime and the Moon and star in nighttime.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a astronomical compass that does not require maintenance such as disassembly and inspection of a mechanical gyro compass, or self-correction such as a magnetic compass.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a astronomical compass capable of outputting a bearing signal in a standard format (NMEA) signal so as to be compatible with other equipment.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an astronomical compass which is accurate in judgment of true north, is less influenced by external environments, can maintain an accuracy of 1 DEG or less without hunting for navigating (left and right swing of the indicator) .

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an astronomical compass comprising: a ceiling-side sensor unit for observing a celestial object and outputting a ceiling-side measurement value; A top side tracking unit for controlling driving of the top side sensor unit to track the top side sensor unit; A ceiling power database part in which the ceiling power data including the position information (position) of the celestial object with respect to the current time is stored; A position interlocking unit for manually inputting a current position coordinate value and a current time or automatically inputting a current position coordinate value and time from a GPS satellite signal; An arithmetic processing unit for calculating the azimuth angle by calculating the position coordinate value, the time information and the ceiling power data based on the ceiling measurement value; And a display unit for displaying the azimuth angle processed by the operation processing unit.

Further, the astronomical compass according to the present invention further includes an angular velocity sensor unit for measuring an angular velocity, and the arithmetic processing unit calculates an azimuth angle based on the angular velocity measured by the angular velocity sensor unit when the measured value is not present .

Wherein the calculation processing unit determines the position of the celestial object based on the current time information and calculates the azimuth angle corresponding to the position coordinate value of the own celestial object and the determined position of the celestial object.

Wherein the calculation processing unit corrects the error of the azimuth angle currently used by the azimuth calculated using the near side measurement value.

In this case, the top-side sensor unit includes a base; And a ceiling sensor formed at the center of the base and outputting a ceiling measurement value when the ceiling sensor unit rotates and coincides with the direction of the heavenly body at the current position.

In this case, the ceiling-mounted sensor is constituted by an optical sensor for detecting incident light, a camera or a camera system capable of recognizing a celestial object.

According to the present invention, it is possible to measure the azimuth angle between the own coordinate and the position of the celestial body by using the celestial body. Therefore, the astronomical compass, which can eliminate the inconvenience of maintenance such as disassembling and checking of the mechanical gyro compass, Can be provided.

In addition, it is possible to provide an astronomical compass which is accurately judged by the true north, is less influenced by the external environment, and can maintain an accuracy of 1 deg. Or less without hunting (swaying of the indicator).

1 is a block diagram of a astronomy compass according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view and a front view of an embodiment of a top-side sensor unit applied to the present invention;
3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining status in the present invention,
4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the calculation of an azimuth angle in the present invention;

The astronomical compass according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a astronomy compass according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The astronomical compass 100 includes a ceiling side tracking unit 110, a display unit 200, an operation processing unit 300, A position interlocking unit 510, an angular velocity sensor unit 520,

The ceiling-side sensor unit 100 observes a celestial body and outputs a ceiling-side measured value.

As shown in FIG. 2, the topside sensor unit 100 includes a circular or elliptical base; And a ceiling sensor formed at the center of the base and outputting a ceiling measurement value when the ceiling sensor unit 100 rotates and coincides with the direction of the celestial body at its own position. In this case, the weather sensor can be realized by using an optical sensor that detects incident light or by a camera that operates when the azimuth is exactly the same.

The ceiling-side tracking unit 110 controls the operation of the ceiling-side sensor unit 100 so that the ceiling-side sensor unit 100 tracks the celestial object. For this, the ceiling-side tracking unit 110 preferably includes a motor connected to the ceiling-side sensor unit 100 to rotate the ceiling-side sensor unit 100.

The ceiling power database 400 serves to provide ceiling power data including position information of a celestial body according to time. When observing a celestial body such as the sun and a star for sailing on the earth, most of the stars and constellations can observe the constant movement of the celestial body. These surveillance powers can be used to find the ship's direction and position, including sun, moon, planet, and star positions, as well as the sunrise, sunset, and time of sunset required for observing the object when the ship sails. It is an edited voyage book. In astronomical observations, astronomical observations are possible in the case of the sun and moon (full moon) as the direction of shadows, and astronomical observations are possible in other general planets and stars, including telescopes and goniometers.

The position interlocking unit 510 is responsible for manually inputting the current position coordinate value and time or extracting the current position coordinate value and the current time position from the GPS satellite signal and transmitting it to the operation processing unit 300 .

The operation processing unit 300 calculates the azimuth angle by calculating the position coordinate value, the time information and the ceiling power data of the user based on the ceiling measurement value. The operation processing unit 300 determines the position of the celestial object based on the time information, and calculates the azimuth angle corresponding to the position coordinate value of the own celestial object and the determined position using the ceiling force data. In addition, the operation processing unit 300 corrects the error of the azimuth angle currently used with the azimuth calculated using the near side measurement value.

The display unit 200 displays the azimuth angle processed by the operation processing unit 300.

The angular velocity sensor 520 measures the angular velocity and transmits the measured angular velocity to the arithmetic processing unit 300. The arithmetic processing unit 300 calculates the angular velocity measured by the angular velocity sensor 520, To calculate the azimuth angle.

The external interface 530 serves to perform an interface with an external device, and may make it possible to link with an external device such as a steering device. In particular, the external interface 530 interfaces the azimuth signal to the external device in a standard format (NMEA) signal.

The operation of the astronomy compass according to the present invention will now be described in detail.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the top sensor formed at the center of the base accurately coincides with the direction of the celestial body while observing the celestial object, the top-side sensor unit 100 outputs the top-side measured value through the celestial sensor . That is, the top-side sensor unit 100 forms a groove of about 1 mm in the center of the base of a circular or elliptical shape, and mounts an optical sensor responsive to the light inside the groove. It is acceptable to use a camera capable of performing the same function in place of the optical sensor. And, if the directions are exactly the same, the optical sensor is operated and the measured value of the near side is outputted.

Here, the top-side sensor unit 100 is rotatable and is driven by the top-side tracking unit 110. That is, the ceiling-side tracking unit 110 rotates the ceiling-side sensor unit 100 using a motor and the ceiling-side sensor unit 100 outputs a ceiling-side measurement value when the ceiling-side sensor coincides with the direction of the ceiling- . In other words, the ceiling-side tracking unit 110 drives the ceiling-side sensor unit 100 so that the ceiling-side sensor can track-rotate toward the stronger side of the light intensity. By this control operation, the top sensor automatically tracks the object.

The ceiling sensor traces the celestial body in the above-described process and outputs the celestial measurement value to the arithmetic processing unit 300 when the intensity of the light is strongest or when an arbitrary celestial body is correctly recognized.

The operation processing unit 300 calculates the azimuth angle by calculating the position coordinate value and the time information of the azimuth calculation unit 300 and the ceiling power data stored in the ceiling power database unit 400 based on the ceiling measurement value . That is, the position of the celestial body is determined based on the time information, and the azimuth angle corresponding to the position coordinate value and the determined position of the celestial body are calculated using the ceiling power data.

Here, the azimuth calculation process will be described in more detail as follows.

As shown in Fig. 3, the point at which a straight line connecting the celestial body and the center of the earth meets the surface of the earth is called a geographical position (GP). This position changes regularly with time due to the motion of the celestial body, and can be interpreted as the projection of the position of the celestial object on the earth's coordinates.

It is presupposed that the coordinate system that deals with the celestial object uses the spherical coordinate system instead of the general coordinate system. The characteristics of the spherical coordinate system are composed of three components: radius, horizontal angle, and vertical angle. The distance from the observer to the celestial object on the surface of the earth is not apparently visible, so they all feel as if they are attached to the inner surface of one large sphere, regardless of their perspective. Therefore, a hypothetical sphere called a celestial sphere assuming that all spheres are attached to this sphere, imagining spheres with an infinite radius centering on the viewer's eyes.

In other words, the celestial body has coordinates in the celestial sphere, and the movement of the celestial body is regular as the constellation is always constant. Therefore, the observer observes the celestial object to recognize the celestial coordinates. However, since these celestial objects have the position of the surface of the earth corresponding to the coordinates of the celestial object, the present invention calculates the azimuth angle using this position and its own position.

As shown in FIG. 4, the position of the celestial object has a value corresponding to the degree of the earth's longevity. The value corresponding to the earth's hardness is called a GHA (Greenwich Hour angle), and the value corresponding to the earth's latitude is Dec (Declination) do. However, while the Earth's hardness is longitude and swell 180 °, GHA is displayed as a 360 ° value in the west direction.

Based on this concept, the calculation processing unit 300 may calculate the ceiling power data of the ceiling power data base unit 400 according to the ceiling measured value, the current position of the observer acquired through the position interlocking unit 510, Based on the calculated position of the celestial body, the azimuth angle is calculated. To calculate the azimuth angle here means to seek the direction of a celestial body based on true north in my position.

As shown in FIG. 4, the distance of the segment r connecting the position (GHA, Dec) and my position (Longitude, Latitude) is calculated by using the cosine law of the spherical trigonometry,

. Here, LHA (Local Hour Angle) means the difference in hardness between the position of the celestial body and my position.

Using the distance of the line r connecting the position of the celestial object and my position, we can obtain each z formed by the true north and the line r in the same way as follows.

 In other words, not only can we know that the azimuth of the observer observed by z is at an angle of z with respect to the true north, but also with respect to the line r that connects my position with that of the ceiling, It is precisely this. The angular velocity sensor 520 measures an angle of the angular velocity sensor 520 with respect to the thus obtained true north, and calculates an azimuth angle of the astronomical compass. The azimuth obtained in this way is displayed on the display unit 200.

By calculating the azimuth angle measured through the celestial body in this manner, it is possible to provide an astronomical compass capable of eliminating the inconvenience of maintenance such as disassembling and checking of the existing mechanical gyro compass, and correction of a car such as a magnetic compass. In addition, by using the astronomical measurement method, accurate judgment of the true north, less influence on the external environment, and accuracy of error of 1 DEG or less can be maintained without hunting (swaying of the indicator).

In the case where the measurement of the celestial body is impossible, the above-mentioned method calculates the azimuth angle in the calculation processing unit 300 using the angular value measured by the angular velocity sensor unit 520, And displays an azimuth on the display unit 200. At this time, the azimuth angle may not be more accurate than the azimuth angle obtained through the astronomical measurement, but the error range is small and there is no problem in using it.

Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

The present invention is applicable to a compass technique for navigation on a ship, and is also applicable to a technique for obtaining a bearing on land or in air. In particular, it is effectively applied to a technique of calculating an azimuth angle using a celestial body.

100 ... The top-
110 ... The top-
200 ... Display portion
300 ... The arithmetic processing unit
400 ... The ceiling power database unit
510 ... Position interlocking part
520 ... The angular velocity sensor unit
530 ... External interface (I / F)

Claims (7)

A top side sensor unit for observing a celestial body and outputting a ceiling side measurement value;
A top side tracking unit for controlling driving of the top side sensor unit to track the top side sensor unit;
A ceiling power database part for storing ceiling power data including positional information of the celestial object with respect to time;
A position interlocking unit for receiving a position coordinate value and a time of its own position;
An arithmetic processing unit for calculating an azimuth angle by calculating current position coordinate values, time information and ceiling power data based on the near side measurement value; And
And a display unit for displaying the azimuth angle processed by the operation processing unit,
Wherein the calculation processing unit calculates the position of the celestial body based on the position of the celestial body calculated from the ceiling power data of the ceiling power data base unit according to the current position of the observer and the observation time acquired through the position measurement unit, And the distance of the line r connecting the position (GHA, Dec) and my position (Longitude, Latitude) is calculated using the cosine law of the spherical trigonometric method,

Here, LHA (Local Hour Angle) is the difference in hardness between the position of the object and the position of the object,
Using the distance of the line r connecting the position of the computed celestial body and my position, each z formed by the true north and the line segment r,

Wherein the angular velocity sensor unit measures the angle when the angular velocity sensor unit is rotated based on the true north calculated above, and calculates the azimuth angle.
The astronomy compass according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic processing unit calculates an azimuth angle based on an angle measured by the angular velocity sensor unit when the near side measurement value does not exist.
The astronomy compass according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic processing unit determines the position of the celestial body based on the time information, and calculates an azimuth angle corresponding to the position coordinate value of the celestial body and the determined position.
The astronomy compass according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic processing unit corrects the azimuth angle currently used by the azimuth calculated by the calculation of the near side measurement value.
[2] The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the top sensor unit comprises: a base; And a ceiling sensor formed at the center of the base for outputting a ceiling measurement value when the ceiling sensor unit rotates and coincides with the direction of the celestial body at its position.
The astronomy compass according to claim 5, wherein the ceiling-mounted sensor comprises an optical sensor for detecting incident light, or a camera system capable of recognizing a camera or a celestial body.
The astronomy compass of claim 1, further comprising an external interface coupled to the processor for interfacing an azimuth signal with a standard format (NMEA) signal for interfacing with an external device.

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