Ocean observation system

Abstract

An ocean observation system (100) comprises an ocean observation machine (2) that navigates the ocean and a base station device (1) that controls the ocean observation machine (2). The ocean observation machine (2) is provided with a first observation device (2A) and a second observation device (2B), one of which is set as an active device and the other of which is set as a standby device. Each of the first observation device (2A) and the second observation device (2B) is provided with observation equipment (20A, 20B), an operation state determination unit (22A, 22B) that detects failures occurring in the observation equipment of the other observation device, and a switching processing unit (23A, 23B) that sets the host observation device as the active device or the standby device. The switching processing units (23A, 23B) switch the host observation device as the standby device when a failure is detected by the host observation device while the host observation device is set as the active device, and switch the host observation device as the active device when a failure is detected by the other observation device while the host observation device is set as the standby device.

Description

Ocean Observation System

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an ocean observation system that autonomously navigates the ocean and collects observation data.

[0002] Autonomous ocean vehicles (AOVs) that travel autonomously in the ocean are used to conduct ocean observations such as seafloor crustal movements. The AOVs are equipped with sensors and a power supply to power the sensors. The AOVs transmit the observation data sensed by the sensors to a base station on the sea or land. Because AOVs operate underwater, they must continue to operate with limited power in harsh environments that differ from those on land.

[0003] Standby method: "https: / / infocenter.sybase.com / help / index.jsp?topic= / com.sybase.infocenter.dc32518.1571 / doc / html / san1292613263345.html" Duplex system: "https: / / wa3.i-3-i.info / word1338.html" Cold standby, warm standby, hot standby: "https: / / qiita.com / lymansouka2017 / items / 8d06dcc76fe6df17e987" Standby method: "https: / / pfs.nifcloud.com / navi / beginner / standby.htm"

[0004] Marine IoT sensing requires that sensing systems continue to operate with limited power in harsh environments that differ from those on land. Therefore, if an AOV sensor malfunctions or experiences physical damage due to some external force during ocean observation, it is difficult to replace the malfunctioning part due to the vast ocean observation environment.

[0005] As a countermeasure against system failures, methods for enhancing fault tolerance through redundant configurations have been proposed for terrestrial systems (Non-Patent Documents 1 to 4). Specifically, Non-Patent Documents 1 to 4 propose a hot standby system in which two systems of equipment are used simultaneously, a cold standby system in which standby equipment is immediately started when a failure occurs in active equipment, and a warm standby system in which standby equipment is kept in a constantly activated state and on standby.

[0006] In ocean observations, hot standby, which uses two sensors simultaneously, is not practical because it doubles the limited power consumption. Also, because cold standby and warm standby are methods that use servers and cluster software, if this redundant configuration of a ground system is adapted for ocean observations, the communication bandwidth in the ocean, which is different from that on land, is narrow and limited, which causes network delays and increases system instability.

[0007] The present disclosure has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an ocean observation system that can robustly back up and operate observation equipment used for ocean observation.

[0008] An ocean observation system according to one aspect of the present disclosure is an ocean observation system comprising an ocean observation aircraft that navigates the ocean and a base station device that controls the ocean observation aircraft, wherein the ocean observation aircraft comprises a first observation device and a second observation device, one of which is set as an active device and the other as a standby device, and the first observation device and second observation device each comprise observation equipment, an operating status determination unit that detects failures that occur in the observation equipment of the other observation device, and a switching processing unit that sets its own observation device as either an active device or a standby device, wherein when the switching processing unit is set as the active device and a failure is detected in the own observation device, it switches its own observation device to a standby device, and when the switching processing unit is set as the standby device and a failure is detected in the other observation device, it switches its own observation device to the active device.

[0009] According to the present disclosure, it is possible to robustly back up and operate observation equipment used in oceanographic observations.

[0010] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an ocean observation system according to an embodiment. Fig. 2A is a first sub-diagram of a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the ocean observation system according to an embodiment. Fig. 2B is a first sub-diagram of a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the ocean observation system according to an embodiment. Fig. 2C is a first sub-diagram of a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the ocean observation system according to an embodiment. Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of an embodiment.

[0011] Hereinafter, an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an ocean observation system according to an embodiment. As shown in Fig. 1, the ocean observation system 100 includes a base station device 1 and an ocean observation vehicle 2 that travels underwater to collect observation data.

[0012] The base station device 1 is installed on the sea or on land, and wirelessly controls the marine observation device 2. The base station device 1 includes a monitoring control unit 11, a switching determination unit 12, a flag transmission unit 13, and a reception unit 14.

[0013] The monitoring control unit 11 monitors whether or not a failure has occurred in the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B (details of which will be described later) mounted on the oceanographic observation vehicle 2.

[0014] The switching determination unit 12 checks the switching results of the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B, and recognizes whether they are set as active devices or standby devices.

[0015] When it is determined that a failure has occurred in the first observation device 2 A or the second observation device 2 B, the flag transmitter 13 transmits a switch-impossible flag to each of the observation devices 2 A and 2 B. The switch-impossible flag will be described in detail later.

[0016] The reception unit 14 receives a manual switching operation input by the user. When the switching operation is input, the reception unit 14 transmits a manual switching signal to each of the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B to set one of the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B as an active device and set the other as a standby device. The manual switching signal will be described in detail later.

[0017] The oceanographic observation vehicle 2 is, for example, an autonomous unmanned observation vehicle (AOV) that navigates the ocean autonomously. The oceanographic observation vehicle 2 is equipped with a first observation device 2A and a second observation device 2B.

[0018] The first observing device 2A includes a first observing device 20A, a monitoring unit 21A, an operating state determination unit 22A, and a switching processing unit 23A. Similarly, the second observing device 2B includes a second observing device 20B, a monitoring unit 21B, an operating state determination unit 22B, and a switching processing unit 23B.

[0019] The first observation device 20A and the second observation device 20B are devices used for oceanographic observation, and in this embodiment, an example will be described in which sensors and power supplies are mounted. That is, the first observation device 20A includes a sensor 5A and a power supply 6A, and the second observation device 20B includes a sensor 5B and a power supply 6B. The first observation device 20A and the second observation device 20B may also include other devices. The sensors 5A and 5B are, for example, sensors for observing ocean topography. The power supplies 6A and 6B supply power to the sensors 5A and 5B. The power supplies 6A and 6B are, for example, rechargeable batteries. Note that the sensors 5A and 5B and the power supplies 6A and 6B may have the same configuration or different configurations (different models).

[0020] The monitoring unit 21A of the first observing device 2A detects a timeout in the second observing device 20B of the second observing device 2B, which is the counterpart. For example, a certain time T is set, and if a synchronization signal is not obtained from the second observing device 20B at time T, it is determined to be a timeout. If a timeout is determined to be a timeout, the monitoring unit 21A outputs a timeout determination signal to the operating status determination unit 22B of the counterpart. If the monitoring unit 21A is able to obtain a synchronization signal from the second observing device 20B again after outputting the timeout determination signal, it outputs a recovery signal to the operating status determination unit 22B.

[0021] Similarly, the monitoring unit 21B of the second observing device 2B detects a timeout in the first observing device 20A of the counterpart, the first observing device 2A. If a timeout is determined, the monitoring unit 21B outputs a timeout determination signal to the counterpart operating status determination unit 22A. If the monitoring unit 21B is able to obtain a synchronization signal from the first observing device 20A again after outputting the timeout determination signal, it outputs a recovery signal to the operating status determination unit 22A. Communication between the first observing device 2A and the second observing device 2B can be wired or wireless.

[0022] When a timeout determination signal is output from the monitoring unit 21B of the second observation device 2B, the operating status determination unit 22A determines that the first observation equipment 20A has failed. Specifically, it determines that a failure has occurred in at least one of the sensor 5A and the power supply 6A, causing problems with ocean observation. The operating status determination unit 22A transmits this determination result to the monitoring control unit 11 of the base station device 1.

[0023] Similarly, when a timeout determination signal is output from the monitoring unit 21A of the first observation device 2A, the operating status determination unit 22B determines that the second observation equipment 20B has failed. Specifically, it determines that a failure has occurred in at least one of the sensor 5B and the power supply 6B, causing problems with ocean observation. The operating status determination unit 22B transmits this determination result to the monitoring control unit 11 of the base station device 1.

[0024] The first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B mutually detect faults. That is, the first observation device 2A detects faults occurring in the second observation device 2B (the other observation device), and when a fault is detected, transmits the result to the monitoring control unit 11. Furthermore, the second observation device 2B detects faults occurring in the first observation device 2A (the other observation device), and when a fault is detected, transmits the result to the monitoring control unit 11.

[0025] The switching processing units 23A and 23B set one of the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B as an active device and the other as a standby device. That is, the marine observation instrument 2 is equipped with a first observation device 2A and a second observation device 2B, one of which is set as an active device and the other as a standby device. The active device refers to an observation device that operates to collect observation data when marine observation is carried out. The standby device refers to an observation device that operates to collect observation data when some kind of failure occurs in the active device, causing an interruption in the collection of observation data. The switching processing units 23A and 23B initially set the first observation device 2A as an active device and the second observation device 2B as a standby device. Note that the first observation device 2A may be set as a standby device and the second observation device 2B may be initially set as an active device.

[0026] The switching processing unit 23A sets the first observation device 2A (its own observation device) as an active device or a standby device, and the switching processing unit 23B sets the second observation device 2B (its own observation device) as an active device or a standby device.

[0027] When a failure is detected in the first observation device 20A as a result of mutual timeout detection by the monitoring units 21A and 21B, the switching processing unit 23A switches the first observation device 2A from an active device to a standby device. That is, when the first observation device 2A (its own observation device) is set as the active device and a failure is detected in its own observation device, the switching processing unit 23A switches its own observation device to a standby device.

[0028] The switching processing unit 23B also switches the second observation device 2B from a standby device to an active device. That is, when the second observation device 2B (its own observation device) is set as a standby device and a failure is detected in the first observation device 2A (the other observation device), the switching processing unit 23B switches its own observation device to an active device.

[0029] That is, when a failure is detected in the first observation device 2A, which is set as the active device, the switching processing units 23A and 23B switch the second observation device 2B to the active device and switch the first observation device 2A to the standby device.

[0030] When a failure is detected in the second observation device 20B as a result of mutual timeout detection by the monitoring units 21A and 21B, the switching processing unit 23A maintains the first observation device 2A as the active device. That is, when the first observation device 2A (its own observation device) is set as the active device and a failure is detected in the second observation device (the other observation device), the switching processing unit 23A maintains its own observation device as the active device.

[0031] The switching processing unit 23B also maintains the second observation device 2B as a standby device. That is, when the second observation device 2B (its own observation device) is set as a standby device and a failure is detected in the own observation device, the switching processing unit 23B maintains its own observation device as a standby device. That is, when a failure is detected in the second observation device 20B set as a standby device, the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B are maintained as they are.

[0032] When a switch-impossible flag is transmitted from the switch determination unit 12 of the base station device 1, the switch processing units 23A and 23B prohibit the switch processing between the active and standby devices, regardless of the results of the mutual failure determinations by the operation status determination units 22A and 22B. The "switch-impossible flag" is a flag for prohibiting switching between the active and standby devices when one of the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B fails. For example, if a failure occurs in the second observation device 2B set as the standby device and a further failure is detected in the first observation device 2A, switching between the active and standby devices will not solve the problem. Therefore, when a switch-impossible flag is transmitted from the switch determination unit 12 of the base station device 1, the switch processing between the active and standby devices is prohibited.

[0033] When a manual switching operation is input from the reception unit 14 of the base station device 1, the switching processing unit 23A performs processing to switch the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B between active and standby devices in response to this switching operation signal.

[0034] For example, as described above, if a failure occurs in the first observation device 2A that is set as the active device, the first observation device 2A is switched to the standby device, and the second observation device 2B is switched to the active device. After that, when the first observation device 2A recovers, the active and standby devices are switched based on a manual switching signal transmitted from the base station device 1. The "manual switching signal" is a signal for setting the active and standby devices through user operation. That is, after recovery from the failure, a selection is made based on the manual switching signal as to whether to continue observation with the first observation device 2A as the standby device and the second observation device 2B as the active device, or to resume observation by returning the first observation device 2A to the active device and the second observation device 2B to the standby device.

[0035] [Explanation of Operation of the Embodiment] Next, the operation of the ocean observation system 100 configured as described above will be explained with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C.

[0036] 2A, the switching processors 23A and 23B initially set the first observation device 2A as the active device and the second observation device 2B as the standby device in step S11. That is, ocean observation is performed using the first observation device 20A mounted on the first observation device 2A.

[0037] In step S12, the monitoring units 21A and 21B monitor the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B mutually.

[0038] In step S13, the monitoring units 21A, 21B determine whether a timeout has been detected. As described above, the monitoring unit 21A of the first observation device 2A determines whether a timeout has been detected in the second observation device 20B of the counterpart second observation device 2B. The monitoring unit 21A of the second observation device 2B determines whether a timeout has been detected in the first observation device 20A of the counterpart first observation device 2A. If it is determined that a timeout has occurred (S13; YES), the process proceeds to step S14; if not (S13; NO), the process returns to step S12.

[0039] In step S14, the operation status determination units 22A and 22B determine whether the failure occurred in the first observation device 20A set as the active device or in the second observation device 20B set as the standby device. If the failure occurred in the first observation device 20A, the process proceeds to step S21 in Fig. 2B. If the failure occurred in the second observation device 20B, the process proceeds to step S31 in Fig. 2C.

[0040] In step S21 of FIG. 2B , the switching processing unit 23A switches the first observation device 2A from an active device to a standby device. The switching processing unit 23B switches the second observation device 2B from a standby device to an active device. Therefore, even if a failure occurs in the first observation device 20A mounted on the first observation device 2A, oceanographic observation can be continued using the second observation device 20B mounted on the second observation device 2B by autonomously switching between the active and standby devices. In addition, the operating status determination unit 22A transmits a failure signal indicating the occurrence of a failure in the first observation device 20A to the switching determination unit 12 of the base station device 1.

[0041] In step S22, the switching determination unit 12 of the base station device 1 transmits a switching disable flag to each of the observation devices 2A and 2B. That is, because a failure has occurred in the first observation device 2A or the second observation device 2B, the switching determination unit 12 determines that one system is operating and transmits a switching disable flag to prohibit switching between the active device and the standby device. Each of the observation devices 2A and 2B receives this switching disable flag.

[0042] In step S23, the switching processing units 23A and 23B prohibit switching between the active device and the standby device, thereby making it possible to avoid unnecessary switching when one system is operating.

[0043] In step S24, the monitoring units 21A and 21B mutually monitor the first observing device 2A and the second observing device 2B. The operating status determination units 22A and 22B determine whether the failure of the first observing device 20A has been restored. If the failure has been restored (S24; YES), the process proceeds to step S25; if not (S24; NO), the monitoring continues.

[0044] In step S25, the switching processing units 23A and 23B clear the switching disable flag. Furthermore, the operating status determination units 22A and 22B transmit a signal indicating recovery to the base station device 1. The switching determination unit 12 of the base station device 1 accepts input of a manual switching operation by the user. When a manual switching operation is performed by the user, the switching determination unit 12 transmits a manual switching signal to the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B.

[0045] In step S26, the switching processing units 23A and 23B determine whether a manual switching signal has been received. If a manual switching signal has been received (S26; YES), the process proceeds to step S27. If not (S26; NO), the process proceeds to step S28.

[0046] In step S27, the switching processing units 23A and 23B set the first observation device 2A as an active device and the second observation device 2B as a standby device.

[0047] In step S28, the switching processing units 23A and 23B maintain the first observation device 2A as a standby device and the second observation device 2B as an active device, and then terminate this process.

[0048] On the other hand, if it is determined in the processing of step S14 (FIG. 2A) that a failure has occurred in the second observation device 20B, the processing of step S31 shown in FIG. 2C is performed. In step S31, the switching processing units 23A and 23B maintain the first observation device 20A as the active device and the second observation device 20B as the standby device. Therefore, ocean observation using the first observation device 20A can be continued. In addition, the operating status determination unit 22B transmits a failure signal indicating the occurrence of a failure in the second observation device 20B to the base station device 1.

[0049] In step S32, the switching determination unit 12 of the base station device 1 transmits a switching impossible flag to each of the observation devices 2A and 2B, and each of the observation devices 2A and 2B receives this switching impossible flag.

[0050] In step S33, the switching processing units 23A and 23B prohibit switching between the active device and the standby device, thereby making it possible to avoid unnecessary switching.

[0051] In step S34, the monitoring units 21A and 21B mutually monitor the first observing device 2A and the second observing device 2B. The operating status determination units 22A and 22B determine whether the failure of the first observing device 20A has been restored. If the failure has been restored (S34; YES), the process proceeds to step S35; if not (S34; NO), the monitoring continues.

[0052] In step S35, the switching processing units 23A and 23B clear the switching impossible flag and transmit recovery information to the monitoring control unit 11 of the base station device 1. After that, this process ends.

[0053] Thus, the ocean observation system 100 of this embodiment is an ocean observation system 100 that includes an ocean observation device 2 that navigates the ocean and a base station device 1 that controls the ocean observation device 2. The ocean observation device 2 includes a first observation device 2A and a second observation device 2B, one of which is set as an active device and the other as a standby device. The first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B each include observation equipment (first observation equipment 20A, second observation equipment 20B), an operating status determination unit (22A, 22B) that detects failures that occur in the observation equipment of the other observation device, and a switching processing unit (23A, 23B) that sets its own observation device as an active device or a standby device. When the switching processing unit (23A, 23B) detects a failure in its own observation device while it is set as an active device, it switches its own observation device to a standby device. When the switching processing unit (23A, 23B) detects a failure in the other observation device while it is set as a standby device, it switches its own observation device to an active device.

[0054] In the ocean observation system 100 according to this embodiment, even if the observation device set as the active device (e.g., the first observation device 2A) fails due to weather conditions such as a typhoon or high waves, or physical disturbances while the ocean observation device 2 is conducting ocean observation, the observation device set as the standby device (e.g., the second observation device 2B) autonomously switches to the active device. This allows the ocean observation to continue without interruption. In other words, the quality of observation operations can be improved by increasing the fault tolerance of sensors used in ocean observation.

[0055] In this embodiment, in addition to the sensors 5A and 5B, the power supplies 6A and 6B are also made redundant, so that it is possible to cope with a shortage of battery power in bad weather.

[0056] In this embodiment, unlike the conventional hot standby system, the power of either the first observation device 2A or the second observation device 2B is turned on to collect data, so the problem of increased power consumption does not occur. Furthermore, unlike the conventional warm standby system and cold standby system, failure detection is performed directly between the first observation device 2A and the second observation device 2B, rather than via a server or cluster software, making it possible to switch between active and standby devices quickly and with high accuracy.

[0057] In this embodiment, the sensor 5B of the standby observation device (e.g., the second observation device 2B) can be placed on standby with minimal power consumption. Furthermore, by configuring the first observation device 20A and the second observation device 20B as the same type of device for redundancy, it is possible to reduce the consumption of power stored in the power supply 6B compared to when different types of devices are used for redundancy.

[0058] In this embodiment, if a failure occurs in either the first observation device 2A or the second observation device 2B, a switch-prohibited flag is transmitted from the base station device 1 to prohibit switching between the active and standby devices, thereby preventing inadvertent switching.

[0059] In addition, the base station device 1 accepts inputs made by manual operation by the user, and when an active device is switched to a standby device due to a failure and the failure is subsequently recovered, it is possible to manually return to the active device and standby device before the switch.

[0060] As shown in FIG. 3 , each of the observation devices 2A, 2B mounted on the ocean observation system 100 of this embodiment described above can be, for example, a general-purpose computer system including a CPU (Central Processing Unit, processor) 901, a memory 902, a storage 903 (HDD: Hard Disk Drive, SSD: Solid State Drive), a communication device 904, an input device 905, and an output device 906. The memory 902 and the storage 903 are storage devices. In this computer system, the CPU 901 executes a predetermined program loaded on the memory 902, thereby realizing the functions of each of the observation devices 2A, 2B.

[0061] Each of the observation devices 2A and 2B may be implemented by a single computer or by multiple computers. Also, each of the observation devices 2A and 2B may be a virtual machine implemented on a computer.

[0062] The programs for the observation devices 2A and 2B can be stored on a computer-readable recording medium such as a HDD, SSD, USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, CD (Compact Disc), or DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), or can be distributed via a network. The computer-readable recording medium is, for example, a non-transitory recording medium.

[0063] The present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0064] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Base station device 2 Ocean observation device 2A First observation device 2B Second observation device 5A, 5B Sensor 6A, 6B Power supply 11 Monitoring control unit 12 Switching determination unit 13 Flag transmission unit 14 Reception unit 20A First observation device 20B Second observation device 21A, 21B Monitoring unit 22A, 22B Operational state determination unit 23A, 23B Switching processing unit 100 Ocean observation system

Claims

1. An ocean observation system comprising an ocean observation aircraft that navigates the ocean and a base station device that controls the ocean observation aircraft, wherein the ocean observation aircraft comprises a first observation device and a second observation device, one of which is set as active equipment and the other as standby equipment, and wherein the first observation device and the second observation device each comprise: observation equipment; an operating status determination unit that detects failures that occur in the observation equipment of the other observation device; and a switching processing unit that sets its own observation device as active equipment or standby equipment, wherein the switching processing unit switches its own observation device to standby equipment when a failure is detected in its own observation device while it is set as active equipment, and switches its own observation device to active equipment when a failure is detected in the other observation device while it is set as standby equipment.

2. The ocean observation system according to claim 1, wherein the switching processing unit further: when its own observation device is set as the active device and a failure is detected in the other observation device, maintains its own observation device as the active device; and when its own observation device is set as the standby device and a failure is detected in its own observation device, maintains its own observation device as the standby device.

3. The marine observation system described in claim 1 or 2, wherein the base station device comprises a flag transmitting unit that transmits a switch-impossible flag to the first observation device and the second observation device when a failure is detected in at least one of the first observation device and the second observation device, and each switching processing unit of the first observation device and the second observation device prohibits switching processing between active equipment and standby equipment in the first observation device and the second observation device when the switch-impossible flag is received.

4. The marine observation system described in claim 1 or 2, wherein the base station device comprises a reception unit that receives input of a manual switching operation, and each switching processing unit of the first observation device and the second observation device switches the first observation device and the second observation device to an active device or a standby device in accordance with the switching operation.

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