Automatic location reporting device

Abstract

To prevent forgetting to report entry by VHF radio telephone, etc. to local maritime traffic centers, which is required when a ship attempts to enter a designated sea area.SOLUTION: An automatic position reporting device includes: a position acquisition unit that acquires a position of a ship that passes through a position reporting line defined on a nautical chart; a position determination unit that determines whether the position has reached the position reporting line; a call start determination unit that determines whether or not a call is possible when the position reporting line is reached; and a synthesized voice transmitter that transmits synthesized voice when the call is possible.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] Vessels entering designated sea areas are required to report their entry to the local marine traffic center by VHF radiotelephone, etc. This invention relates to a device that automates this reporting process, thereby eliminating the risk of forgetting to report and the resulting safety concerns. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, ships have become larger, and the number of ships carrying dangerous goods has also increased. In the complicated sea areas where such ships navigate, in the event of an emergency disaster such as a tsunami, it is necessary to quickly evacuate these ships to safe sea areas to prevent danger.

[0003] Furthermore, even during normal times, congestion at sea is occurring due to an increase in the number of ships, and there is a need to alleviate this congestion and ensure safe ship operation.

[0004] In response to such demands, the Maritime Traffic Safety Act was enacted, which defines entry reporting, which requires that vessels that meet specified conditions transmit specified information to local maritime traffic centers by VHF radiotelephone or other means when passing through designated points.

[0005] The specified conditions include, for example, ships that are 50 meters or longer and do not have AIS but have a simplified AIS, and ships that also have a simplified AIS but have a gross tonnage of 100 tons or more and a maximum capacity of 30 or more people.

[0006] The information to be conveyed in the entry report includes the name of the vessel, its call sign, the location of the reporting point, the port of destination, the length of the vessel, and the vessel's draft. The background art of the present invention aims to ensure safety by making such reports. Furthermore, the items to be reported change depending on conditions, legal amendments, etc., so they are not limited to these.

[0007] Patent Document 1 describes a technology for transmitting ship position information and other information to a ground station, but in this patent document, the information is transmitted as a data signal after voice communication has been established. While this technology significantly reduces the burden on mariners, when a ship passes through a designated area, mariners must wait near the communication device to establish communication with the Vessel Traffic Center, which leaves room for improvement. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0008] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 4-315983 [Patent Document 2] Patent Publication No. 7-84027 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0009] A prior document that contributes to safety by transmitting information from a ship to a ground station is Patent Document 1. This involves automatically transmitting computerized information on the ship's status after establishing communication via voice communication, and the computerized and received information is reflected in the ship symbol displayed on a nautical chart or the like at the ground station.

[0010] However, while Patent Document 1 does not require manpower to transmit each piece of information on the ship, it still requires manual voice communication to establish communication, which does not improve the problem of the crew having to operate the communication device when approaching an area where transmission is required, such as a reporting line, and it does not address the problem of the crew forgetting to make the entry report in the first place. The present invention aims to prevent the crew from forgetting to make the entry report.

[0011] Because forgetting to report poses a threat to the safety of the seas, the Vessel Traffic Service Center may impose strict port entry restrictions on unreported vessels. Furthermore, in the event of an emergency such as a major tsunami, the Vessel Traffic Service Center may need to notify all vessels in the port to ensure the safety of vessel traffic. Notifications may also be issued to ships to evacuate to evacuation areas. Forgetting to report may result in a vessel not being subject to such notifications.

[0012] The present invention aims to prevent such problems from occurring by preventing the entry notification from being forgotten.

[0013] Patent Document 2 describes a method of establishing communication by determining the time between a transmitting mobile station and a receiving ground station, and transmitting electronic data automatically acquired from the mobile station.

[0014] In Patent Document 2, data collection is automated, which reduces the burden on ship passengers, but it has the disadvantage that it cannot be used when the time cannot be set in advance.

[0015] The present invention aims to prevent such problems from occurring by making an entry report by automated voice instead of the crew or personnel involved in the operation, and also makes it possible to transmit automatically collected information. [Means for solving the problem]

[0016] When a vessel passes a position reporting line defined on a chart, a position acquisition unit for acquiring the position of the ship; a position report determination unit that determines whether the position has reached a position report line; a call start determination unit that determines whether a call is possible when the position reporting line is reached; a synthetic voice transmitting unit that transmits synthetic voice when the call is possible; The automatic location reporting device shall consist of the following:

[0017] After the synthetic speech transmission unit transmits the synthetic speech, A voice recognition unit that recognizes the voice of the other party, The automatic location reporting device is characterized by having a reporting success / failure determination unit that determines whether the reporting by the voice recognition unit is successful or not.

[0018] The position report determination unit The automatic position reporting device is characterized by having a coordinate database of position reporting lines stored in advance in a storage device.

[0019] The call start determination unit The automatic position reporting device is characterized in that it transmits a synthetic voice including the ship's name from its own ship, recognizes the voice uttered by the communication partner, and if the name of the own ship is included, determines that the communication channel has been released and activates the synthetic voice transmitting unit. Note that, as a processing method when the name of the communication partner is not included in the voice of the communication partner, it is possible to repeat transmitting the synthetic voice until the communication partner makes a response including the name of the own ship, but this is not limited to this in the present invention.

[0020] The synthetic speech transmission unit The automatic position reporting device is characterized by being capable of generating synthesized voices with content defined by jurisdiction, including the ship's name, call sign, ship's position, ship's length, ship's draft, etc.

[0021] The call success / failure determination unit The voice recognition unit The automatic location reporting device is characterized in that it judges that the report has been successful if the received voice includes a voice sequence indicating that the report has been successful, which is preset.

[0022] When a vessel passes a position reporting line defined on a chart, a position acquisition unit for acquiring the position of the ship; a position determination unit that determines whether the position has reached a position reporting line; The automatic position reporting device is characterized by issuing a notice to the crew and urging them to report when the ship reaches a preset distance from the position reporting line.

[0023] The automatic location reporting device is characterized in that the call start determining unit does not operate when a report is made manually.

[0024] When a vessel passes a position reporting line defined on a chart, a position acquisition unit for acquiring the position of the ship; a position report determination unit that determines whether the position has reached a position report line for the first time; a synthetic voice transmitting unit that transmits all necessary information in synthetic voice; The automatic location reporting device shall consist of the following:

[0025] The position report determination unit The automatic position reporting device is characterized by having a coordinate database of position reporting lines stored in advance in a storage device.

[0026] The synthetic speech transmission unit The automatic position reporting device is characterized by being capable of generating synthesized voice with content defined by jurisdiction, including the ship's name, call sign, ship's position, ship's length, ship's draft, etc. [Effects of the Invention]

[0027] According to claim 1, when a ship passes through a position reporting line at sea, it is obligatory to report to a ground station such as a marine traffic center. By automating this process and reporting using a synthesized voice, it is possible to prevent crew members from forgetting to report, thereby contributing to safe navigation at sea.

[0028] According to claim 2, it is also possible to automate the detection of whether the notification to the ground station has been successful.

[0029] According to claim 3, by having a position reporting line database, it becomes possible to make the above-mentioned report when the ship passes through any port.

[0030] According to claim 4, if the line with the ground station is in a non-released state when reporting a position, it is possible to wait for the line to be released before making a call. Note that VHF radios are required to always listen to CH16, and once the receiver is lifted and the non-released state is released, it is possible to make a call.

[0031] According to claim 5, when the notification is automated using synthesized voice, it is possible to provide necessary and sufficient voice information.

[0032] According to claim 6, by using voice recognition to identify the standard phrase for ending the call when the call is heard by the person on the other end of the call at the ground station, it becomes possible to determine whether the call related to this idea was successful, and to go off-hook and end the call.

[0033] According to claim 7, it is possible to notify the crew that an area requiring entry notification is approaching, thereby preventing them from forgetting to report.

[0034] According to claim 8, it is possible to respond even in situations where the automatic notification function according to the present invention is not required.

[0035] According to claim 9, when an entry report is required, all information can be automatically transmitted at once. When it is not necessary to be concerned about establishing communication with the ground station, the above-mentioned procedure becomes unnecessary, and reporting can be made in a short time.

[0036] According to claim 10, by having a position reporting line database, it becomes possible to make the above-mentioned report when the ship passes through any port.

[0037] According to claim 11, when the notification is automated using synthesized voice, it is possible to provide necessary and sufficient voice information.

[0038] Another advantage of the present invention is its ease of implementation. In other words, it is desirable to complete the change at the mobile station, rather than resorting to measures that would require large-scale changes such as replacing equipment at the land station. If the change can be made only at the mobile station, the land station can continue to respond as before, regardless of whether the communication partner is an automated voice or not, and the mobile station can also install the device according to the present invention only when it is desired to improve efficiency. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0039] [Figure 1] Overall configuration diagram [Figure 2] Determining whether the entry reporting line has been crossed [Figure 3] A section that determines whether communication between the ship and the ground station is possible. [Figure 4] A section for determining whether an automatic transmission has been received by a ground station [Figure 5] Table showing whether entry notification is required [Figure 6] Overall configuration diagram for transmitting all audio at once [Figure 7] A diagram showing how to create an area for location reporting DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0040] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. [Example]

[0041] The outline of the present invention is to improve the VHF radio communication equipment (hereinafter referred to as "international VHF") that is generally required for maritime mobile radio communication in order to reduce the burden on crew members on ships, and to automate the entry report exchanged between the ship and the Vessel Traffic Service Center by using a voice synthesizer and a voice recognition device. Note that in this embodiment, for convenience, the explanation will be given assuming VHF radio that is generally used in ship communication, but the radio system is not limited to this.

[0042] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of a marine mobile station entry reporting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0043] First, the GPS device acquires the position of the ship at sea using the position acquisition unit 101. The ship has a database of position information including a position reporting line and its surrounding area with an arbitrary width. The reason for the width is that the report will begin at a position a predetermined distance away from the position reporting line. If the ship enters the position information that requires a report with this width, the position report determination unit 103 determines whether a report must be made using the flag processing shown in Figure 5, which will be described later.

[0044] As mentioned above, one possible method for creating location information that requires a report with a range is as shown in Figure 7, where the distance at which the report is desired to be made is set to R as viewed from the location reporting line, a circle with this radius is created at multiple points on the location reporting line, and a geometric pattern is created with the line connecting the farthest points of the circle as the perimeter, but the method is not limited to this.

[0045] If the ship's position is outside the geometric pattern and it is determined by flag processing, which will be described later, that a position report is not required, the process returns to the position acquisition unit 101. If a position report is required, the process moves to the call start voice transmission unit 105. Here, the name of the other ground station and the name of the ship itself, such as "(ground station name), this is the XX Maru, reporting entry," are sent as an example in a synthesized voice.

[0046] The call availability determination unit 107 waits for a response from the other ground station, and receives a response such as "XX Maru, this is (ground station name)", which is recognized by the received voice recognition 1 unit 106, and if the ship's name XX is not included, it is determined that the call is unavailable, and the processing of the call start voice transmission unit 105 is repeated.

[0047] If the ship's name "XX" is included, it is determined that communication is possible, and since communication with the ground station has been established, the necessary information is transmitted in a synthesized voice from the ship information voice transmission unit 109.

[0048] The necessary information is generally "name of the ship," "call sign," "location of the reporting point," "destination port if it has been determined," "length of the ship," "ship's draft," etc., and these are prepared in advance as synthesized voice data. Note that the necessary information may change depending on the destination ground station, legal amendments, etc., and the items in this invention are not limited to the above.

[0049] When the ship information voice transmission unit 109 transmits the synthesized voice, the received voice recognition unit 2 111 identifies the reply voice from the ground station. The ground station replies that it has received the report, for example, with the content, "We have confirmed your ship's position, and now we have received your entry report."

[0050] The notification success / failure determination unit 113 utilizes these characteristics of the call, searching for phrases such as "confirmation" or "entry notification" in the response voice from the ground station, and if these are not included, the received voice recognition unit 111 continues to wait for the other party's voice.

[0051] If the reply voice contains this, the call termination unit 115 automatically terminates the communication.

[0052] Note that there may be cases where a crew member desires manual transmission without using the automatic transmission means of the present invention. However, if the manual transmission determination unit 117 determines that an entry report has been made manually, the process transitions from the beginning to the end-of-call unit 115, and the part related to automatic communication is not executed. In the case of a manual entry report, an explicit action such as pressing the talk button on the communication device is added, so the manual transmission determination unit 117 makes a determination based on whether or not that action has been performed. Alternatively, if a voice is input into the microphone of the communication device, the determination can be made based on the content of that voice. However, these means related to manual transmission are not limited to those in the present invention.

[0053] As described above, the present invention automatically determines the timing of call start and end, so that by automatically collecting various transmission information, it is possible to make entry reports even from unmanned ships that navigate autonomously.

[0054] Furthermore, if the connection to the ground station is performed automatically and subsequent calls are not made using synthesized voice, but rather the crew actually communicates information verbally, then only the position acquisition unit 101 and the position report determination unit 103 need to operate, and this means is also included as one form of the present invention.

[0055] Furthermore, the present invention also includes a case where ship information is also transmitted at the same time by the call initiation voice transmitting unit 105. In this case, the information transmitted by the ship information voice transmitting unit 109 is included in the information transmitted by the call initiation voice transmitting unit 105, and when the call availability state determining unit 107 determines that the call is available, the process jumps to the call termination unit 115. This will be described later with reference to FIG. 6.

[0056] Next, each process will be explained individually.

[0057] 5 shows the determination method of the position report determination unit 103. The area for which an entry report must be sent is designated as A, and the concept of a flag is used as an element for determination.

[0058] The first condition is that if the vessel is outside A, no entry report will be made regardless of the flag. In this case, the flag is set to 0.

[0059] The second condition is that if the vessel enters within A and the flag is 0, it is determined that a position report is required. In this case, the flag is set to 1.

[0060] The third condition is that even if the vessel is within A, if the flag is already set to 1, no position report will be sent. This is a measure to prevent the vessel from sending position reports multiple times until it crosses the line, which has a certain width, because the position report line has a certain width. In this case, the flag remains set to 1. Based on the above three types of flag processing, the position report determination unit 103 determines whether a report is necessary.

[0061] Fig. 2 shows that the position report determination unit 103 operates according to the flag values ​​shown in Fig. 5. The reporting area database 205 stores position information for an area with a certain width around a predetermined position reporting line. As mentioned above, this is because reporting is performed a certain distance before the position reporting line.

[0062] The position acquisition unit 201 acquires the position of the ship using GPS or the like. The flag used in Fig. 5 is information stored in the flag storage unit 211. Using the flag, the position information, and information from the reporting area database in which the area for position reporting is stored, the position reporting determination unit 203 determines whether to report. The rules are as shown in Fig. 5.

[0063] If position report determination unit 203 determines that position reporting is necessary, it performs an entry report process and sets a flag in flag storage unit 211 to 1. If position report determination unit 203 determines that position reporting is not necessary, it returns to position acquisition unit 201. At this time, flag setting unit 209 sets a flag in flag storage unit 211 according to the rule shown in FIG.

[0064] FIG. 3 shows a section for determining whether communication with a ground station has been established, and shows in more detail the communication availability determination section 107 in FIG.

[0065] First, the call initiation voice transmitter 301 reports the name of the ship and the name of the ground station stored in the ship name / ground station name database 309 in a synthesized voice using a predetermined channel. At sea, the message generally reads something like "(Ground station name), this is the XX Maru, reporting entry," but this message is not specified in the present invention. Furthermore, the channel to be used may be determined in the maritime traffic agreement, so the method for determining this channel is not specified in the present invention.

[0066] The ground station that receives the notification sends back a response, and the ship identifies the response text in the received voice recognition 1 unit 303. The response text issued by the ground station here is generally something like "XX Maru, this is (ground station name)," but this text is not specified in the present invention.

[0067] For example, assuming the above-mentioned response message, if it is determined that the response message contains the ship's own name based on the recognition result of the received voice recognition 1 unit 303 and the data stored in the ship name / ground station name database 309, the ship's own name determination unit 305 determines that communication with the ground station is possible (called a call possible state), and the process moves to the next step from the call possible determination unit 307. If the ship's own name is not included, the ship's own name determination unit 305 determines that communication with the ground station has not been established, and returns to the call start voice transmission unit 301.

[0068] FIG. 4 shows in more detail the notification success / failure determination unit 113 that determines whether the entry notification from the ship to the ground station has been transmitted normally.

[0069] The call termination sentence database 407 stores voice data of the call termination voices that are actually exchanged. Generally, when a ground station has received an entry report from a ship, it responds with a response such as "XX Maru, we have now received your entry report," so for example, voice data such as "Entry report" or "Received" is stored in the call termination sentence database 407. However, the sentences stored in the call termination sentence database 407 are not limited to these.

[0070] The received voice recognition 2 unit 401 recognizes the voice transmitted from the other party's ground station, and if the result is one stored in the call termination sentence database 407, the notification success / failure determination unit 403 determines that the call has been terminated, and the call is ended. If the call is not determined to be terminated, the received voice recognition 2 unit is repeated. If the repetition is repeated a preset number of times or more, the call abnormality determination unit 409 determines that the communication was not carried out normally, and the process is restarted from the pre-processing, ship information voice transmission 109, or the device notifies the crew that the communication is not going well.

[0071] Next, a case where ship information is also transmitted at the same time as the first voice transmission for connecting to the ground station will be described with reference to FIG.

[0072] Based on the information from the position acquisition unit 601 and using the flag information, if the position report determination unit 603 determines that an entry report is necessary, the voice transmission unit 605 transmits all the information required for the entry report, such as the ship's name and destination port, using voice synthesis.

[0073] In response to this, the ground station sends a reply containing the aforementioned fixed phrases, which is then recognized by the received voice recognition unit 607, and the call success / failure determination unit 609 determines whether it is OK to end the call, and if so, the call is ended by the call ending unit 611.

[0074] In addition, since there are cases where necessary information is sent manually without using this automatic sending function, the manual sending determination unit 613 makes a determination based on information such as whether or not a crew member has operated the control knob for the purpose of manually sending information, and if a manual operation has been performed, transitions to the call termination unit 611 and ends the call. As mentioned above, the present invention does not limit the means of manual sending.

[0075] In this case, after the position report determination is automatically performed, the crew can manually transmit the necessary information by voice, and this case is also included in the present invention.

[0076] As described above, according to the present invention, communication between the ship and the ground station is established before the entry reporting line, the necessary information is transmitted, and it is possible to automatically determine whether the information was transmitted normally and then terminate the entry reporting. However, as described above, the embodiments of the present invention also include processes such as not performing this process when the entry reporting is performed manually, automating only the establishment of communication for the reporting and transmitting the information verbally, and notifying the crew if the communication could not be transmitted normally. [Explanation of symbols]

[0077] 101... location acquisition unit, 103... location report determination unit, 105... call start voice transmission unit, 106...received voice recognition unit 1, 107...communication possible state determination unit, 109...ship information voice transmission unit, 111...received voice recognition unit 2, 113...report success / failure determination unit, 115...call termination unit, 117...Manual transmission determination unit, 201... location acquisition unit, 203... location report determination unit, 205... report area database unit, 207... Flag 1 setting unit, 209... Flag setting unit, 211... Flag storage unit, 301... Call start voice transmission unit, 303... Received voice recognition unit 1, 305... Own ship name determination unit, 307...communication availability determination unit, 309...ship name / ground station name database unit, 401...received voice recognition unit 2, 403...notification success / failure determination unit, 405...automatic communication termination unit, 407... call termination sentence database unit 409... call abnormality determination unit, 601... location acquisition unit, 603... location report determination unit, 605... voice transmission unit, 607...received voice recognition unit, 609...notification success / failure determination unit, 611...call termination unit, 613...Manual transmission determination unit

Claims

1. When a vessel passes a position reporting line defined on a chart, a position acquisition unit for acquiring the position of the ship; a position report determination unit that determines whether the position has reached a position report line for the first time; a call availability determination unit that determines whether or not a call is available when the position reporting line is reached; a synthetic voice transmitting unit that transmits synthetic voice when the call is possible; Automatic location reporting device consisting of

2. After the synthetic speech transmission unit transmits the synthetic speech, A voice recognition unit that recognizes the voice of the other party, 2. The automatic location reporting device according to claim 1, further comprising a reporting success / failure determination unit for determining whether the reporting by said voice recognition unit has been successful.

3. The position report determination unit 3. The automatic position reporting device according to claim 1, further comprising a coordinate database of position reporting lines stored in advance in a storage device.

4. The call start determination unit 4. The automatic position reporting device according to claim 1, wherein the device repeatedly transmits a synthesized voice including the name of the ship from the own ship, recognizes the voice of the communication partner, and if the name of the own ship is included, determines that the communication channel has been released and activates the synthesized voice transmitting unit.

5. The synthetic speech transmission unit The automatic position reporting device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it can generate synthesized voices with content defined by jurisdiction, including the name of the ship, call sign, ship position, ship length, ship draft, etc.

6. The call success / failure determination unit The voice recognition unit 3. The automatic location reporting device according to claim 2, wherein success is determined when the received voice includes a preset voice sequence indicating that the reporting has been successful.

7. When a vessel passes a position reporting line defined on a chart, a position acquisition unit for acquiring the position of the ship; a position determination unit that determines whether the position has reached a position reporting line; and when a vessel reaches a preset distance from the position reporting line, an automatic position reporting device is characterized in that it issues an alarm to the vessel's crew and urges them to report.

8. 2. The automatic location reporting device according to claim 1, wherein the call start determining unit does not operate when a report is made manually by a human.

9. When a vessel passes a position reporting line defined on a chart, a position acquisition unit for acquiring the position of the ship; a position report determination unit that determines whether the position has reached a position report line for the first time; a synthetic voice transmitting unit that transmits all necessary information in synthetic voice; Automatic location reporting device consisting of

10. The position report determination unit 10. The automatic position reporting device according to claim 9, further comprising a coordinate database of position reporting lines stored in advance in a storage device.

11. The synthetic speech transmission unit The automatic position reporting device according to claims 9 and 10, characterized in that it can generate synthesized voices with content defined by jurisdiction, including ship name, call sign, ship position, ship length, ship draft, etc.

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