KR20130073087A - Tranceiver and power supply device for the underwater apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A transceiver for transmitting and receiving wireless power and data for underwater equipment is provided to implement an efficient underwater work by wirelessly supplying power to various environmental sensors by using a radio frequency. CONSTITUTION: A sensor module (100) includes multiple environmental sensors and a wireless communication unit. The environmental sensors are equipped in the exterior wall of underwater equipment (50). The environmental sensors obtain sensing data about an underwater environment. The wireless communication unit wirelessly transmits the sensing data. A sensor control module (200) receives the sensing data. [Reference numerals] (100) Sensor module; (200) Sensor control module; (500) External equipment; (AA) Out of water; (BB) Underwater

Description

Wireless Power and Data Transceiver for Underwater Equipment {TRANCEIVER AND POWER SUPPLY DEVICE FOR THE UNDERWATER APPARATUS}

An embodiment according to the concept of the present invention relates to wireless power and data transmission and reception technology for underwater equipment, in particular by selectively supplying power to the various environmental sensors provided on the outer wall of the underwater equipment using RF, The present invention relates to a wireless power and data transmission / reception apparatus for underwater equipment capable of transmitting and receiving sensing data.

The sea, which accounts for about 71 percent of the earth's surface, is closely related to human life. Recently, the existence of Manganese Nodule, Hydrothermal Deposit, Deep-sea Organism, Methane Hydrate, etc. has become known. Submarine exploration is accelerating in relation to the issue of possible resource utilization and environmental conservation. In particular, Korea has a growing interest in marine development, marine disaster detection, and development of underwater military equipment in a geographical environment surrounded by three sides, but underwater exploration technology is still at an early stage compared to advanced foreign countries. Such underwater exploration requires a variety of underwater exploration equipment and supporting equipment. Until now, the underwater exploration equipment has been used to fix or tow the exploration equipment connected to the cable from a mobile or ground-based bus or ground system. Direct exploration methods using methods and unmanned and unmanned submersibles have been used. The underwater traction method has an advantage that the exploration range is wider than that of the submersible / unmanned submersible, but there is a problem that it is difficult to improve the precision of the exploration because the observation is performed at a distance from the observation point. On the other hand, the method using a submarine / unmanned submersible is basically a structure that is powered and controlled from a mother ship or a ground system, such an unmanned submersible has a problem that requires a lot of energy to access the underwater exploration or development area. In addition, a plurality of environmental sensors for exploration should be provided, and since the power should be supplied to the plurality of environmental sensors in a wired manner, there is a problem in that the implementation becomes complicated.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to wirelessly supply power to the environmental sensors existing on the outer wall of the underwater equipment to operate underwater through RF, and the environmental sensors powered by the wireless communication technology It is to provide a wireless power and data transmission and reception device for underwater equipment that can transmit the sensing data.

Wireless power and data transmission and reception apparatus for underwater equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided on the outer wall of the underwater equipment, each of the plurality of environmental sensors and the obtained sensing to obtain sensing data for the underwater environment by receiving wireless power A sensor module including a wireless communication unit for transmitting data wirelessly and is provided on the inner wall of the underwater equipment, selects an environmental sensor to be driven among the environmental sensors to supply the wireless power, and wireless with the wireless communication unit And a sensor control module configured to receive sensing data acquired by the selected environmental sensor through data communication.

Each of the plurality of environmental sensors includes a power acquisition circuit for receiving and converting wireless power supplied from the sensor controller into DC power, and the wireless communication unit wireless data of at least one of Bluetooth, Zigbee, and UWB. The acquired sensing data is transmitted to the sensor control module through communication.

The sensor control module may be configured to select an environmental sensor to be driven from among the environmental sensors in response to a preset environmental sensor selection command or an environmental sensor selection command from an external device, and the electric power to the environmental sensor selected by the sensor selection unit. And a data transmission / reception unit configured to wirelessly supply the power supply unit and the sensing data acquired by the selected environmental sensor through wireless data communication with the wireless communication unit.

The power supply unit supplies the wireless power to an environmental sensor selected by the sensor selector using any one of an RF transmission method, an electromagnetic inductive coupling method, or a magnetic resonance method.

According to an embodiment, the data transmission / reception unit may include an external communication interface for transmitting sensing data transmitted from the sensor module to an external device provided in the underwater equipment.

The external communication interface may be implemented by at least one of USB, RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485.

 According to another embodiment, the data transmission and reception unit may include an ultrasonic transmission and reception module for transmitting to an external device existing outside of the underwater equipment.

The wireless power and data transmission and reception apparatus for underwater equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention can wirelessly supply power to various environmental sensors provided on the outer wall of the underwater equipment by using RF, and is provided to various environmental sensors during underwater work. Power can be selectively supplied to sensors that need to be driven based on their unique IDs, enabling efficient underwater work.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In order to more fully understand the drawings recited in the detailed description of the present invention, a detailed description of each drawing is provided.
1 is an internal block diagram of a wireless power and data transmission and reception apparatus for underwater equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows an internal block diagram of the sensor module shown in FIG. 1.
3 is an internal block diagram of the sensor control module shown in FIG. 1.

It is to be understood that the specific structural or functional descriptions of embodiments of the present invention disclosed herein are only for the purpose of illustrating embodiments of the inventive concept, But may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein.

Embodiments in accordance with the concepts of the present invention are capable of various modifications and may take various forms, so that the embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the embodiments according to the concepts of the present invention to the particular forms disclosed, but includes all modifications, equivalents, or alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

The terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by the terms. The terms are intended to distinguish one element from another, for example, without departing from the scope of the invention in accordance with the concepts of the present invention, the first element may be termed the second element, The second component may also be referred to as a first component.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another component, it may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but it may be understood that other components may be present in between. Should be. On the other hand, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that there are no other elements in between. Other expressions describing the relationship between components, such as "between" and "immediately between," or "neighboring to," and "directly neighboring to" should be interpreted as well.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this specification, the terms "comprises ", or" having ", or the like, specify that there is a stated feature, number, step, operation, , Steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof, as a matter of principle.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning of the context in the relevant art and, unless explicitly defined herein, are to be interpreted as ideal or overly formal Do not.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an internal block diagram of a wireless power and data transmission and reception apparatus for underwater equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the wireless power and data transmission / reception apparatus 10 for underwater equipment 10 includes a sensor module 100 provided on an outer wall of the underwater equipment 50 and a sensor control module 200 provided inside the underwater equipment 50. ).

A module in the present specification may mean a functional or structural combination of hardware for performing a technical idea and software for driving the hardware according to an embodiment of the present invention.

For example, the module may mean a logical or functional unit of a predetermined program code and a hardware resource for executing the program code, and does not necessarily mean only physically connected program code or one kind of hardware.

At this time, the underwater equipment 50 may be a detection equipment for identifying an object such as a needle, an obstacle, a seabed wire, a seabed pipeline, a reef, or an exploration equipment used for surveying a hydrothermal image, a seabed topography, geological distribution, and the like.

2 shows an internal block diagram of the sensor module 100 shown in FIG. 1.

1 and 2, the sensor module 100 is provided on the outer wall of the underwater equipment 50, and includes a sensing unit 130 and a wireless communication unit 170 including a plurality of environmental sensors.

In addition, the sensing unit 130 of the sensor module 100 includes a plurality of environmental sensors 131 to 135 having respective functions.

In this case, each of the environmental sensors 131 to 135 includes wireless power acquisition circuits 141 to 145, and is driven through the control of the sensor control module 200 to be described later, given a unique ID.

In addition, each of the environmental sensors 131 to 135 collects sensing data according to the function and transmits the sensing data to the wireless communication unit 170.

Each of the wireless power obtaining circuits 141 to 145 converts the transmitted RF power into DC power, an antenna for obtaining power, an input matching circuit for passing the obtained power to a maximum value, and It may comprise a smoothing circuit composed of a rectifying / boosting circuit and a low loss capacitor for effectively rectifying the RF power to DC power.

In FIG. 2, only five environmental sensors 131 to 135 included in the sensing unit 130 are illustrated. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto and may be implemented to include an appropriate number of environmental sensors.

For example, the plurality of environmental sensors 131 to 135 are implemented as an underwater ultrasonic sensor 131, a water temperature measuring sensor 132, a dissolved oxygen measuring sensor 133, a water quality sensor 134, a flow rate sensor 135, and the like. Can be.

Meanwhile, the wireless communication unit 170 of the sensor module 100 transmits sensing data collected by each of the environmental sensors 131 to 135 to the sensor control module 200 by using a wireless communication means.

According to an embodiment, the wireless communication means used by the wireless communication unit 170 may be various wireless communication technologies such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, or UWB (Ultra Wideband).

According to an embodiment, the sensing module 100 may further include a power charging unit 190 for storing the power supplied from the sensor control module 200.

The power charging unit 190 stores a part of the power supplied from the sensor control module 200, and uses the stored power even if there is no power supply from the sensor control module 200 for a predetermined time. ) Can be preliminarily supplied to the environmental sensor to be used.

Meanwhile, the sensor control module 200 included in the wireless power and data transmission / reception apparatus 10 for underwater equipment is provided in the underwater equipment 50 to supply power to the sensor module 100, and the sensor module Data transmission and reception with the 100 or the external device 500 is performed.

In this case, the external equipment 500 is a device provided inside the underwater equipment 50 or a device installed outside the underwater equipment 50. Wire / wireless communication with the sensor control module 200 is possible and the sensor module 100 is provided. ) May be a device such as a computer that may display or analyze sensing data received through the sensor control module 200.

3 is an internal block diagram of the sensor control module shown in FIG. 1.

1 to 3, the sensor control module 200 includes a sensor selector 230, a power supply 250, and a data transceiver 270.

The sensor selector 230 may be an environmental sensor corresponding to an ID assigned to each of the environmental sensors 131 to 135 according to a predetermined ID selection command or an ID selection command input from the external device 500, for example, an underwater ultrasonic sensor ( 131 and transmits the sensor selection information to the power supply 250.

The power supply unit 250 performs wireless power transfer to the underwater ultrasonic sensor 131 selected from the environmental sensors 131 to 135 in response to the sensor selection information transmitted from the sensor selection unit 230.

In this case, the power supply unit 250 may use RF to perform the wireless power transmission, and the power supply unit 250 may supply RF power to the wireless power acquisition circuits 141 to 145 of each of the environmental sensors 131 to 135. To send).

According to an exemplary embodiment, the power supply unit 250 may supply power to the underwater ultrasonic sensor 131 wirelessly using electromagnetic inductive coupling, or may be a non-radiative method using magnetic resonance. Magnetic Resonace) may be used to supply power to the underwater ultrasonic sensor 131.

Therefore, the power supply unit 250 may transmit electrical energy in a wireless manner in the form of electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic induction, or electromagnetic resonance over a long distance or a short distance.

The data transceiver 270 may communicate with the wireless communication unit 170 of the sensor module 100 using various wireless communication technologies.

For example, the data transmission / reception unit 270 receives sensing information sensed by the selected environmental sensor 131 from the wireless communication unit 170 of the sensor module 100 through the various wireless communication technologies, and receives the received sensing information externally. Transmit to equipment 500.

At this time, the data transmission and reception unit 270 is implemented to communicate data with the wireless communication unit 170 of the sensor module 100 through a wireless communication technology such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, as described above.

According to an embodiment, the data transmission / reception unit 270 may transmit an external communication interface 275 for transmitting sensing data transmitted from the wireless communication unit 170 to an external device 500-1 provided in the underwater device 50. The external communication interface 275 may be implemented as a communication port such as USB, RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485.

In addition, the data transmission / reception unit 270 transmits the ultrasonic data transmission / reception module 280 for transmitting the sensing data transmitted from the wireless communication unit 170 to the external device 500-2, that is, the underwater device 500-2. It may further include.

As a result, the wireless power and data transmission / reception apparatus 10 for underwater equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention may supply power to various environmental sensors 131 to 135 provided on the outer wall of the underwater equipment wirelessly using RF, By assigning unique IDs to the various environmental sensors 131 to 135, only a sensor that needs to be driven during underwater work can be selected and supplied with power, thereby enabling efficient underwater work.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment shown in the drawings, this is merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

10: wireless power and data transmission and reception device for underwater equipment
50: Underwater Equipment
100: sensor module
130: sensing unit
131 to 135: environmental sensor
141 to 145: wireless power acquisition circuit
170: wireless communication unit
200: sensor control module
230: sensor selection unit
250: power supply
270: data transmission and reception unit
275: external communication interface
280: ultrasonic transceiver module
500: external device

Claims (6)

A sensor module provided on an outer wall of the underwater equipment, the sensor module including a plurality of environmental sensors each receiving wireless power to obtain sensing data about the underwater environment, and a wireless communication unit for wirelessly transmitting the acquired sensing data; And
It is provided on the inner wall of the underwater equipment, selects an environmental sensor to drive among the environmental sensors to supply the wireless power, and receives the sensing data obtained by the selected environmental sensor through wireless data communication with the wireless communication unit Wireless power and data transmission and reception device for underwater equipment comprising a sensor control module. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of environmental sensors,
A power acquisition circuit for receiving and converting wireless power supplied from the sensor control unit into DC power;
The wireless communication unit includes:
An apparatus for transmitting and receiving wireless power and data for underwater equipment which transmits the obtained sensing data to the sensor control module through wireless data communication of at least one of Bluetooth, Zigbee, and UWB. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor control module,
A sensor selector configured to select an environmental sensor to be driven among the environmental sensors in response to a preset environmental sensor selection command or an environmental sensor selection command from an external device;
A power supply unit wirelessly supplying the power to an environmental sensor selected by the sensor selection unit; And
And a data transmitting / receiving unit configured to receive sensing data acquired by the selected environmental sensor through wireless data communication with the wireless communication unit. The method of claim 3, wherein the power supply unit,
Wireless power and data transmitting / receiving device for underwater equipment which supplies the wireless power to an environmental sensor selected by the sensor selector using any one of an RF transmission method, an electromagnetic inductive coupling method, or a magnetic resonance method. . The method of claim 3, wherein the data transmission and reception unit,
Wireless for underwater equipment including an external communication interface for transmitting the sensing data transmitted from the sensor module to an external device provided inside the underwater equipment or an external transmission and reception module for external equipment existing outside the underwater equipment. Power and data transceiver. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the external communication interface is implemented by at least one of USB, RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485.

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