RU2429159C1 - System for monitoring state of divers - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: information technology.

SUBSTANCE: system includes ground station with a computer, light and sound alarms. At least one monitored diver is provided with a hydrophone and an alarm button. There are at least three buoys on the surface of the sea. The buoys are fitted with a GPS receiver, a hydrophone, a microcontroller and a wireless modem. The ground station is also fitted with a wireless modem and a GPS receiver. The diver is additionally provided with a highly stable watch which is pre-synchronised with a GPS watch, physical and physiological parameter sensors and a microcontroller for processing signals from the sensors and automatic generation of an alarm signal.

EFFECT: owing to continuous monitoring of physical and physiological parameters of divers with automatic generation of an alarm signal upon deviation of said parameters from a given range, determination of the exact geographical coordinates of divers, the reliability and functionality of the system increases, thus ensuring safety of a person under water.

3 cl, 3 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of diving equipment and can be used to monitor the status of a group of mobile underwater swimmers in order to ensure life safety during underwater operations, sports swimming, physiotherapy exercises, etc.

The physical and physiological parameters of human safety are known when moving under water, subject to constant monitoring. Physical parameters include swimmer’s coordinates, diving depth, temperature, density and speed of water flow, time spent in water, physiological parameters include the state of the cardiovascular system, nitrogen level in the blood, etc.

In patent US 7,257,51782, IPC G06F 17/40, dated 14.08.2007, “Detection apparatus, detection system, portable device, and machine readable medium”, a system located on a swimmer measures the distance traveled, speed, time spent in water, temperature, density and speed of the flow of water, on the basis of these data calculates the number of calories spent by a person and displays on the wrist display of a swimmer. Such systems are used only for sports or rehabilitation training and have low functionality in terms of ensuring human safety.

In patent US 7,144,198 B2, IPC B63C 11/02, dated 05.12.2006, “Diver information processing apparatus and method of controlling the same” system, in addition to measuring the depth of immersion and temperature of the water, contains a nitrogen sensor in the air exhaled by a person, which allows to signal in time swimmer about the danger of decompression and slow down the rise to the surface of the water.

There are various systems for determining the coordinates of underwater swimmers [1, 2]. For example, in US patent 7,512,036 B2, IPC G01S 3/80, dated March 31, 2009, “Underwater acoustic positioning system and method”, the swimmer’s coordinates are determined using the well-known acoustic navigation system with a long base [1, p. 49], based on the use of three GPS buoys, the location of which limits the area of underwater operations.

The disadvantage of all the systems discussed earlier is that all information about the status of the underwater swimmer is displayed only on the display of the swimmer himself, without being transmitted to the ground control station, which in case of danger does not allow taking measures to save the person.

In addition, none of the known systems has the functionality necessary for full control of the status of an underwater swimmer.

Closest to the proposed invention is the invention "Method and apparatus for locating diver (s) from a surface station and alerting the surface station of a diver emergency), patent US 6,108,272 B2, IPC H04B 11/00, published August 22, 2000.

In this invention, a device placed on a swimmer, together with a ground station, form an ultrasonic system with an ultrashort base for determining the bearing, depth and range of a swimmer’s immersion, based on measuring the direct and reverse travel time of the acoustic signal from the swimmer to the station. This information is displayed on the swimmer's display in digital form and at the ground station in the form of a bottom map with the location of the swimmers. Figure 1 shows the image on the computer screen of the ground station. The current parameters of swimmers 1 and 2 - alarm, range, bearing, depth, can be shown in window 3 and can be selected for a particular swimmer with switch 4. The navigation parameters of various swimmers are determined at different sonar frequencies. There is an alarm button on the swimmer’s device, when clicked, a sonar signal is generated at a frequency different for each swimmer. This signal is received by the ground station and triggers a light and sound alarm.

The advantages of this invention are:

1) the ability to control the parameters of several swimmers;

2) display of the swimmer's coordinates at the ground station, which allows in the event of an alarm to quickly find and save a person.

The disadvantages of this invention are:

1) manual alarm does not save a person in case of loss of consciousness, injuries, etc .;

2) insufficient functionality of the system - there is no monitoring of the state of physiological parameters;

3) the use of many sonar frequencies significantly complicates the system;

4) low accuracy of determining the coordinates of a swimmer due to the use of a navigation system with an ultra-short base.

The technical task of the proposed invention is to increase the reliability and functionality of the monitoring system of the status of underwater swimmers to ensure the safety of a person under water by continuously monitoring the physical and physiological parameters of swimmers with the automatic generation of an alarm when these parameters go beyond the specified limits and determining the exact geographical coordinates of the swimmer using a single-frequency long-range navigation system with global satellite synchronization positioning system (Global Positioning System, GPS).

It is known that the best accuracy in determining the coordinates of underwater objects is provided by hydroacoustic systems with a long measuring base [1]. In modern systems, the measuring base is formed by three buoys with GPS-receivers, forming a triangle with a side of 1 ... 5 km. To determine the coordinates and ensure synchronization of gears of several underwater swimmers in the present invention, the personal instrument of each swimmer is equipped with highly stable watches, previously synchronized by GPS. The hydro-acoustic emitter (hydrophone) of a certain underwater swimmer radiates a signal only at its predetermined point in time, depending on the number assigned to the swimmer — swimmer hydrophone i radiates its signal at time i · T, swimmer’s hydrophone i + 1 - at time (i + 1) · T, etc. Time T in the present invention is the sum of the time of transmission and delivery of a signal from one swimmer and an interval of the same duration for the transmission and delivery of alarm messages from any swimmer or team from a ground station.

The signal transmission and delivery time from one swimmer t is the sum of the transmission time t _n and the signal propagation time along the longest measuring base (between the most distant buoys) t _l :

t => t _n + t _l .

Time T is equal to twice the time t, therefore, signals from n swimmers will be transmitted in time

T = n · 2 · t.

During the transmission, data on any physical and physiological parameters of the swimmer, pre-selected or changed by the command of the ground station, can be transmitted. To exchange data between the swimmer and the base, there are well-known hydroacoustic methods for transmitting data at speeds of 4800 bps and higher [3], sufficient to transmit any parameters in real time. For example, it is known that when registering an electrocardiogram (single lead) in the “monitoring” mode, the speed of the digital data stream is not more than 1200 bit / s [4].

For example, an information package is transmitted from a swimmer at a speed of 4800 bps, which contains data on the depth of immersion (0 ... 40 m), water temperature (0 ... 30 ° C), heart rate (20 ... 200 beats / min), level nitrogen in the air exhaled by the swimmer (0 ... 100%). Taking into account additional data for synchronization and restoration of information on the receiving side, the volume of such a package will not exceed 10 bytes, and the duration of the package, i.e. transfer time from the swimmer will be

t _n = 10 · 8 · (1/4800) = 0.017 s.

The propagation time of a signal between buoys at an average sound speed in water of 1500 m / s and a maximum distance between buoys of 1000 m will be

t _l = 1000/1500 = 0.667 s.

Therefore, the interval T between the transfers of the pingers of the swimmers must be at least

T = 2 · t => 2 · (0.017 + 0.667) ≈ 1.4 s.

All buoys must transmit the swimmer's parameters and their coordinates to the ground station in time t. The time of data processing and display on the computer display of the ground station should also be less than time t. Under these conditions, the parameters of the swimmers are monitored at a speed of 10 swimmers / 14 seconds (i.e., the update of the coordinates and state of a group of 10 underwater swimmers is completed in 14 seconds).

In the present invention, a pause between information packets of the same duration t is used to send alarm messages from any swimmer to a ground station or to send a command from a ground station to a specific swimmer. Alarm transmission is made in the nearest pause, and the alarm package contains the number of the emergency swimmer. The command from the ground station is also made in the nearest pause between information packets.

To prevent overlays of hydroacoustic signals in the present invention, all transmissions from a swimmer are made only at predetermined time points, according to the timestamps of highly stable watches of an underwater swimmer’s device, previously synchronized by the GPS clock, and all transmissions from buoys and ground station are synchronized by the clock of their GPS receivers.

In the present invention, the formation of an alarm notification from a swimmer can be done in two ways - manually, when the swimmer presses the alarm button, and automatically. Automatic generation of an alarm event is performed when any physical or physiological parameter goes beyond predetermined limits that may be unique to each swimmer. For example, it can be immersion below a predetermined depth, the output of the heart rate outside the norm, an excess of the proportion of nitrogen in the exhaled air, etc.

The occurrence of an alarm event, in addition to transmitting an alarm, is accompanied by a notification to the swimmer himself (for example, a vibrating alert).

Thus, the technical result is to increase the reliability and functionality of the monitoring system of the status of underwater swimmers to ensure the safety of a person under water by continuously monitoring the physical and physiological parameters of swimmers with the automatic generation of an alarm when these parameters go beyond the specified limits and determining the exact geographical coordinates of the swimmer using single-frequency navigation system with a long base and GPS synchronization.

The claimed technical result is ensured by a system for monitoring the status of underwater swimmers. The problem is solved as follows. A system for monitoring the status of underwater swimmers, consisting of a ground station containing a computer with a program for calculating coordinates and displaying the status of swimmers on the screen, light and sound alarms, at least one underwater swimmer, equipped with a hydrophone and a button for transmitting an alarm notification, according to the claimed technical solution, differs in that additionally contains buoys in an amount of at least three, located on the surface of the sea, and the buoys are equipped with a GPS receiver, hydrophone, microcontroller and radio Modem, the ground station further comprises a radio and GPS-receiver, the diver is further provided with a highly stable clock, previously synchronized by GPS clock, physical sensors and physiological parameters, and a microcontroller for processing the sensor signals and automatic alarm signal.

The following physical parameters can be controlled: swimmer's coordinates, immersion depth, temperature and speed of the water flow, etc.

Controlled physiological parameters may include: the swimmer’s cardiovascular system, the level of nitrogen in the blood, etc.

The invention is shown in the drawings, illustrating a system for monitoring the status of underwater swimmers.

Figure 2 shows a General diagram of a system for determining coordinates in a perspective view.

Figure 3 shows the structural diagram of the nodes of the system for monitoring the status of underwater swimmers.

The essence of determining the coordinates is illustrated in Figure 2, where 1 is an underwater swimmer, 5 is a ground station, 6 is a buoy on the sea surface, 7 is a swimmer's hydrophone, R1, R2, R3 are the horizontal distances between the buoys on the sea surface, forming the sonar measuring base navigation system, L1, L2, L3 - slant ranges from the underwater swimmer 1 to hydrophone 8 of each of the buoys, L1 *, L2 *, L3 * - projections of slant ranges on the sea surface, A - the projection point of the underwater swimmer on the surface, 9 - satellite GPS grouping.

The hydrophone 7 of the underwater swimmer 1, according to the time stamp of the clock synchronized with the buoys GPS 6 clock, emits a signal containing an information package with the swimmer’s parameters at a time point pre-set for each swimmer. This signal received by the hydrophone 8 of each buoy 6 is delayed relative to the time stamp of the GPS-hours of the buoys by a value proportional to the inclined ranges from the underwater object to each buoy. The delay time, measured with the help of the buoy microcontroller, is proportional to the inclined ranges, together with the own coordinates obtained from the GPS receiver and the swimmer’s immersion depth, each buoy transmits to the ground station 5 via radio channel. The ground station 5 receives data via a radio channel and enters this information into a computer, where according to a well-known algorithm the coordinates of each underwater swimmer are calculated and displayed on the screen in the form of points on a sea map and in the form of digital data.

The composition of the system is shown in Fig.3.

The system consists of a ground station 5, at least three buoys 6 and at least one underwater swimmer 1.

The ground station contains a radio modem 10, a computer 11 with a data processing program and output to the display and GPS receiver 12.

Each buoy 6 contains a radio modem 13, a microcontroller 14, a GPS receiver 15 and a hydrophone 8.

Each underwater swimmer 1 contains a highly stable watch 16, a microcontroller 17, a hydrophone 7, sensors of physical parameters 18, sensors of physiological parameters 19, and an alarm siren 20.

The radio modem 10 of the ground station 5 serves to exchange data over the radio channel with the radio modems 13 of the buoys 6. The GPS receiver 12 of the ground station 1 serves to synchronize the clocks of the ground station 5 in order to organize synchronous operation of the data exchange of the system as a whole.

The GPS receiver 15 of buoy 6 serves to synchronize data exchange in the system and to determine the current geographic coordinates of buoy 6. Hydrophone 8 of buoy 6 serves to exchange data via a hydroacoustic channel with hydrophone 7 of swimmer 1. The microcontroller 14 of buoy 6 serves to measure the delay time of the signal from swimmer 1, to transmit this time and the buoy's own coordinates to the ground station 5 by means of a radio modem 13, to transmit commands from the ground station 5 to swimmer 1.

The highly stable clock 16 of swimmer 1 is pre-synchronized with the GPS clock of the ground station 5 and buoys 6 and serves to synchronize the exchange of data via the sonar channel. The microcontroller 17 of swimmer 1 serves to process the signals of sensors of physical parameters 18 and sensors of physiological parameters 19, transferring these parameters to buoys 6 at a predefined point in time by means of hydrophone 7, analyzing these parameters and generating an alarm signal in case any parameter exceeds the specified limits by turning on the alarm siren 20 and transmitting the alarm notification at predetermined times by the hydrophone 7.

The system operates as follows.

Buoys 6 are mounted on the surface of the sea, forming a measuring base. Underwater swimmers 1 in the process of underwater movement should be within the measuring base.

Coordinates are calculated on the basis of a long measuring base, using the well-known spatial principle of calculating distances determined by the hydroacoustic method with measuring the delay time of the hydroacoustic signal received by hydrophone 8 of buoys 6, relative to that emitted by hydrophone 7 of underwater swimmers 1 of the information package. In this case, the periodic radiation of the hydrophone 7 is made at a predetermined point in time, synchronous with the clock 16 and different for each underwater swimmer. The signal from a particular swimmer is received by the hydrophone 8 of buoys 6, and using the microcontroller 14, the delay time of this signal to each buoy is measured. Further, each buoy transmits this time by radio to the ground station 5 using the radio modem 13. The radio modem 10 of the ground station 5 receives this data, and from the data from all the buoys, the computer 11 calculates the coordinates of a specific swimmer and displays them in the form of points on a sea map and in the form of digital data. At the same time, other desired parameters of a particular swimmer may be displayed.

The swimmer's information package, emitted in the order of priority, contains data on the physical and physiological parameters of the swimmer, taken from the sensors of physical parameters 18 and the sensors of physiological parameters 19 by the microcontroller 16.

The microcontroller 16 also compares all the parameters taken from the sensors with predefined acceptable limits and, in the event of any parameter exceeding these limits, generates an alarm notification and activates the swimmer 1 alarm annunciator 1. The alarm notification is transmitted by hydrophone 7 in the nearest pause between information packets once per cycle transfers of all swimmers until at any of the following pauses he receives a confirmation command from the ground station.

Any command transmitted from a ground station to a specific swimmer is relayed from the radio channel to the sonar channel by the buoy closest to the swimmer in the nearest pause between information packets synchronously with the GPS time stamp. Thus, synchronization in the operation of the entire system is achieved and possible overlays of hydroacoustic signals are eliminated, leading to loss of information.

As a result, the claimed technical result is achieved.

The proposed technical solution provides increased accuracy and reliability of monitoring the state of the parameters of the group of mobile underwater swimmers.

In addition, simplification and weight reduction of the equipment of the underwater swimmer is achieved due to the use of only one frequency in the sonar range.

Information sources

1. Milne P.H. Hydroacoustic positioning systems. Translation from English V.K.Komleva. - L .: Shipbuilding, 1989. - P.232.

2. Underwater navigation panel "Cobra". www.RusArmy.com. - Fighting swimmers - their equipment and technical means of dealing with them.

3. Method and apparatus for carrying out high data rate and voice underwater communication. US Patent 6,130,859, Int. Cl. H04B 11/00, Oct. 10, 2000.

4. Cardiomonitors. Equipment for continuous monitoring of the ECG: Textbook. manual for universities / A.L. Baranovsky, A.N. Kalinichenko, L.A. Manilo and others. Ed. A.L. Baranovsky and A.P. Nemirko. - M .: Radio and communications, 1993. - P.248.

Claims (3)

1. A system for monitoring the status of underwater swimmers, consisting of a ground station containing a computer with a program for calculating the coordinates and displaying the status of swimmers on the screen, light and sound alarm sirens, as well as a hydrophone and alarm transmission buttons, installed on at least one underwater swimmer, characterized in that the system additionally contains buoys in an amount of at least three, located on the surface of the sea, and the buoys are equipped with a GPS receiver, hydrophone, microcontroller and radio demo, the ground station additionally contains a radio modem and a GPS receiver, the underwater swimmer is additionally equipped with highly stable clocks previously synchronized by the GPS clock, sensors of physical and physiological parameters and a microcontroller for processing sensor signals and automatically generating an alarm notification. 2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the coordinates of the swimmer, the depth of immersion, the temperature and the speed of the flow of water act as controlled physical parameters. 3. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the parameters of the swimmer’s cardiovascular system and the level of nitrogen in the blood act as controlled physiological parameters.

Images