395 results about "Underwater navigation" patented technology

A position sensing system including a flexible tether and at least one sensor at least partially embedded within a portion of the flexible tether is disclosed. The sensor may be adapted to detect a sensor position factor. The system also includes a communication device adapted to transmit the sensor position factor from the sensor, and a signal processor adapted to receive the sensor position factor. The signal processor is also adapted to calculate at least one of the shape or orientation of the flexible tether from the sensor position factor. The sensor position factor may be relative orientation, relative depth, relative pressure, presence of a magnetic field, presence of an electric field, acceleration, or relative rate of rotation. The system may also include a probe connected to the flexible tether, and the signal processor may calculate the orientation of the probe from the sensor position factor.

Devices and systems are provided which may be used to navigate and communicate while diving in dive sites and improve the safety of the diving experience. For example, in certain embodiments, a diver area system is provided which utilizes virtual underwater information to provide the user with their location, the location of other divers (or “buddies”), and / or location of a surface object (e.g., a dive boat). In certain embodiments, the devices and systems disclosed herein may provide user with their location relative to one or more buddies. The user can thus navigate intelligently throughout the dive site and track the location of their buddies which can improve dive safety and / or efficiency. Additionally, the user can communicate with one or more buddy divers and / or surface-based objects and individuals using embodiments of the disclosure.

The invention discloses a kind of underwater GPS allocation and navigation system and method without high stable frequency scale. The system is made up of GPS satellite constellation, four or more GPS floating marks, underwater navigation transceiver, data control centre, sea level wireless communication loop and hydroacoustics communication loop. The method is: when the object underwater needed to be located, the underwater navigation transceiver sends out hydroacoustics localization signal to the GPS floating mark, the floating mark transmits the hydroacoustics localization signal, the GPS signal and the posture calibration data wirelessly to the data control centre, and the data are processed with the difference signal, works out the position and time sending out the localization signal of the underwater object, the position and time data are transmitted to the underwater navigation transceiver by the hydroacoustics communication system, it can carry on navigation or time service. The invention can be applied to underwater object tracing, underwater localization and navigation, underwater precise timer service, measuring project control and project structure sample, it needs no high stable frequency scale.

The invention discloses a mixed type underwater navigation detector which comprises a bow compartment, a main chamber, an electronic control chamber and a peak tank which are coaxially and sequentially connected, wherein the bow compartment and the peak tank are communicated with an outside water area; the main chamber and the electronic control chamber are sealing chambers; two wings are symmetrically installed at a connection position of the main chamber and the electronic control chamber; a sonar height gauge and an acoustic transceiver are installed in the bow compartment; a non-contact electric energy and signal transmission assembly is sleeved outside the main chamber; a gesture adjustment system and a buoyancy adjustment system are installed in the main chamber; the buoyancy adjustment system is installed on the front portion of the main chamber; buoyancy is adjusted through movement of a piston; two sides of the piston are isolated and sealed through rolling membranes; electronic equipment for controlling an aircraft is installed in the electronic control chamber; and a propeller propelling system and a steering control system are fixed on the peak tank. The mixed type underwater navigation detector has characteristics of underwater gliders and autonomous underwater vehicles, and can be abutted with an underwater connection platform to conduct non-contact charging and data transmission, so that continuous operational capability and applied range of underwater aircrafts can be increased.

The mixed submarine navigation craft has the advantages of both underwater glider and underwater navigation craft combined together. It consists of a head compartment, a buoyancy driving and controlling compartment, a pose controlling compartment, a wing compartment, a battery compartment and a tail compartment connected successively. It has one buoyancy driving system comprising an outer casing, an inner casing and a hydraulic system; one pose regulating system comprising a pitch regulating system and a roll regulating system; two wings with two rotation freedoms each and capable of being withdrawn for fast propulsion; and one navigation and control system for craft pose measurement, navigation, buoyancy control, etc. The present invention is one modular designed structure and may embark proper measurement sensors and task modules for various water operations.

Methods and transducers for producing acoustical signals having a spiral wavefront with omnidirectional magnitude and a phase that varies with angle and transducers for producing broadband omnidirectional reference signals for underwater navigation and communication.

The invention discloses an underwater navigation and positioning method capable of combining terrain and environment characteristics. The method comprises the steps of judging whether all sub-areas in a planned track of an underwater vehicle are matched or not according to terrain information; if so, positioning by a terrain-aided inertial navigation system; and if not, positioning by a simultaneous localization and composition algorithm auxiliary master inertial navigation system. The method can be used for calculating the terrain information of a navigation area, and the underwater terrain is divided into a matched terrain area and an unmatchable terrain area. Different navigation algorithms are adopted aiming at the different areas, so that the position error of a master inertial navigation system can be corrected, and the method is relatively high in autonomy.

An underwater carrier geomagnetic anomaly feature points matching navigation method belongs to the technical field of underwater navigation and solves the problem in the prior art that the location of an underwater carrier can not be determined according to geomagnetic field information. The method provided by the invention comprises the following steps of: acquiring a target magnetic moment vector of present position of the underwater carrier and a relative position vector from the present position of the underwater carrier to a target magnetic source; constructing a map of the underwater target magnetic source; carrying out coordinate transformation based on the absolute position of the underwater carrier so as to obtain geographic coordinates of the map; calculating the position of the underwater carrier in the map at sampling time and the geographic coordinates of the underwater carrier at the sampling time; updating the position of the target magnetic source; updating the map of the underwater target magnetic source; and repeating the above relative processes to complete the matching navigation of the underwater carrier. The invention is suitable for underwater carrier navigation.

The invention provides an SINS / LBL (strapdown inertial navigation systems / long base line) tight combination based AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) underwater navigation positioning method. The SINS / LBL tight combination based AUV underwater navigation positioning method is characterized by comprising three major parts, namely an SINS mounted on an AUV, an LBL underwater sound positioning system laid on the seabed, and a data processing unit. The method comprises the following specific steps: firstly performing a strapdown algorithm on IMU (inertial measurement unit) data to obtain AUV position information, and representing the position information by using earth rectangular coordinates; secondly reckoning an SINS slant-range difference according to the AUV position information provided by the SINS and hydrophone array position coordinates; and thirdly establishing an LBL slant-range difference model according to LBL positioning characteristics, and correcting SINS navigation positioning information according to filter estimation compensation by taking the difference value between the SINS slant-distance difference and the LBL slant-distance difference as an observed quantity of a kalman filter. According to the SINS / LBL tight combination based AUV underwater navigation positioning method, the use of GPS and other radio positioning systems is avoided at the same, and the AUV underwater operation efficiency is improved.

The invention discloses an underwater screw propeller propelling module, which comprises a servo motor and a speed reducer connected with a tail cone, wherein the speed reducer is fixedly connected with the inside of the tail cone and is connected with a driven shaft passing through a bearing support through a shaft coupling, and the driven shaft is provided with a screw propeller; the shaft coupling is a magnetic shaft coupling consisting of an inner hub, an outer hub sleeved outside the inner hub, a stainless steel isolation cover arranged between the inner hub and the outer hub, and a clamp ring fixedly connected with the stainless steel isolation cover; and the outer hub is arranged on an output shaft of the speed reducer, the inner hub is arranged on the driven shaft, and the clamp ring is fixedly arranged in the tail cone. The invention also discloses an underwater vehicle comprising the underwater screw propeller propelling module. The underwater screw propeller propelling module adopts a magnetic coupling technique to realize power transmission, adopts the isolation cover to isolate water from a sealed cabin, adopts a corrosion resistant material and a ceramic bearing to solve the problem of aqueous corrosion resistance, adopts the modularization design to make the structure compact and easy to replace, dismount and mount, and achieves the absolute sealing between a pressure resistant cabin of the underwater vehicle and the external sea water.

The invention discloses an underwater positioning and navigation system and method based on the DGPS. The system is composed of GNSS satellites, at least four DGPS buoys and at least one underwater positioning and navigation receiver. The buoys receive GPS signals and are in wireless communication with one another so that DGPS positioning can be achieved. The buoys broadcast navigation signals to water. Frequency spread can be conducted on the navigation signals through pseudorandom frequency spread codes, wherein the frequency spread codes play a role of ranging codes at the same time. The underwater positioning and navigation receivers do not need to transmit signals outwards. The underwater positioning and navigation receivers resolve the positions of the underwater positioning and navigation receivers in the earth coordinates and the accurate positions of the underwater positioning and navigation receivers relative to a base station by means of the received navigation signals of the buoys. Time synchronization of the underwater positioning and navigation receivers and the UTC is achieved. Multiple underwater positioning and navigation receivers can be arranged in the system to simultaneously receive the navigation signals, and the number of the underwater positioning and navigation receivers is not limited. The underwater positioning and navigation system and method can be applied to the underwater exploration field, the under water construction field, the underwater security and protection field, the underwater navigation field and other fields.

The invention discloses a time series analysis-based variable proportion self-adaptive federal filtering method, and the method is utilized for underwater multi-sensor integrated navigation systems. The time series analysis-based variable proportion self-adaptive federal filtering method is characterized by establishing system state equations and measurement equations according to error equations belonging to all navigation sensor systems, carrying out discretization processing of the established equations, creating discrete state-space models respectively corresponding to the all navigation sensor systems, acquiring information weight of the navigation sensor systems through an autoregressive model according to historical data of the navigation sensor systems, acquiring an information distribution ratio according to the obtained information weight and a law of information conservation, realizing global optimal estimates, and resetting a filtering value and an evaluated error covariance matrix by the global optimal estimates. The time series analysis-based variable proportion self-adaptive federal filtering method improves system navigation precision, system stability and fault tolerance, and can satisfy requirements which belong to underwater navigation devices and comprise high precision and high reliability requirements.

The invention provides a buoyancy force and attitude balancing device used for long-voyage AUV and a control method. The buoyancy force and attitude balancing device comprises a buoyancy force balancing device, a buoyancy force balancing controller, a vertical plane motion controller, an attitude sensor and a depth sensor, wherein the attitude sensor is used for detecting an attitude, during underwater navigation, of the AUV; the depth sensor is used for detecting depth, during underwater navigation, of the AUV; the vertical plane motion controller is used for controlling the AUV to move at definite depth on the vertical plane; the buoyancy force balancing controller is used for controlling speed that an oil pump pumps oil into oil bags or sucks oil from the oil bags in the buoyancy force balancing device; the buoyancy force balancing device is used for regulating buoyancy force and a longitudinal inclination attitude, during underwater navigation, of the AUV; the buoyancy force balancing device consists of a pressure-resistant oil tank and two oil bags; the pressure-resistant oil tank is on the gravity center of the AUV; and the two oil bags are separately arranged at the bow and the stern of the AUV. The buoyancy force and attitude balancing device provided by the invention can be used for effectively regulating buoyancy force and gravity force balancing, in water, of the AUV, and eliminating longitudinal inclination angle errors of the AUV, so that resistance when the AUV navigates at definite depth is reduced, and AUV voyage is increased under the condition of carrying same energy sources.

The invention provides small-sized underwater robot combined navigation system and navigation method. The combined navigation system comprises an embedded navigation processor, a pressure-resistant global position system (GPS), a micro attitude sensor, a speedometer, a depth meter and underwater acoustic communication equipment. When an underwater robot carrier is underwater and after the combined navigation system is electrified, the navigation system autonomously runs, a relay is controlled through an input / output (IO) channel of an analog / digital (AD) board to open the sensor for performing data acquisition so as to acquire an initial navigation position, a magnetic declination is calculated according to a magnetic declination database, and planned navigation position correcting instruction information is received for navigation position calculation so as to acquire longitude and latitude position information of an underwater robot. The system has small volume, light weight and lowcost, is favorable for the miniaturization of an underwater navigation system, and can be applied to small-sized underwater robots for underwater observation and detection, which require small size and light weight.

The invention discloses an underwater locating navigation system and method. The system is composed at least four base stations and at least one underwater locating navigation receiver. The base stations need to be synchronous in time, and the base stations are arranged on the water face, in water and underwater. The positions of the base stations are fixed, or the base stations can move. The base stations spread navigation signals into the water. Spectrum spreading is conducted on the navigation signals through a pseudorandom spreading code, and the spreading code has a function of a ranging code at the same time. The underwater locating navigation receiver does not need to emit a signal to the outside, the position of the underwater locating navigation receiver itself is solved and time synchronization with the base stations is achieved by receiving the navigation signals of the base stations. A plurality of underwater locating navigation receivers can be arranged in the system to receive the navigation signals at the same time, and the number of the underwater locating navigation receivers is not limited. The underwater locating navigation system and method can be applied to the fields of underwater exploration, underwater construction, underwater security and protection, underwater navigation and the like.

The invention relates to a detecting and positioning method and a detecting and positioning system for aiming at underwater obstacles. The detecting and positioning system comprises a multi-beam image sonar and a computer. Firstly, an underwater sonar image in the forward direction is obtained through the multi-beam image sonar arranged on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV); then the image noise is reduced through a median filter so as to improve the image quality; after the obstacles and a background are segmented by utilizing an image segmenting algorithm, and according to a segmenting threshold value, each pixel point in a scene image is subjected to the binarization treatment; and finally an obstacle outline is obtained from a binary image, and according to the obtained outline, the size and the location of the obstacle are calculated. The detecting and positioning method can rapidly detect the obstacles of an unmanned surveying vessel or the underwater vehicle in the forward direction, can calculate the size and the location of the obstacle, and can be directly used for underwater navigation.

The invention discloses an all deflection propeller vector boost mechanism and an underwater navigation vehicle provided with the same and belongs to the technical field of underwater navigation vehicles. The all deflection propeller vector boost mechanism comprises a support, wherein a disk serving as a static platform is arranged above the support, and a cardan joint serving as a dynamic platform is arranged below the support; a propeller and a boost motor are arranged on the dynamic platform and connected to form a tail thruster; a deflecting mechanism and a slewing mechanism are arranged between the dynamic platform and the static platform. Through motion synthesis of two relatively or completely independent motion chains, namely the deflecting mechanism and the slewing mechanism, the tail thruster can rotate in all directions at any deflecting angle. The all deflection propeller vector boost mechanism has the advantages of being convenient to install and control, good in low-speed steering performance and the like.

The invention relates to an information measuring method and in particular relates to a measuring method for underwater combined navigation attitudes of a strap-down inertial navigation system / a doppler log by the doppler log under an underwater working mode when a submarine navigates underwater. The measuring method comprises the following steps of: connecting the strap-down inertial navigation system and the doppler log of the submarine; measuring the attitude value, the speed value and the position value of the submarine in a recursive manner; recording the speed value at a moment that the submarine starts diving; searching an east parameter beta x of an ocean current model and a north parameter beta y of the ocean current model within a navigation sea area; measuring the speed of the ocean current in the recursive manner; real-timely acquiring the water speed obtained by the doppler log; real-timely measuring attitude errors of the strap-down inertial navigation system; and measuring the accurate attitude value of the strap-down inertial navigation system. After compensating the speed of the ocean current, the measuring method provided by the invention improves the course error angle precision, the pitching error angle precision and rolling error angle precision in different degrees, and improves the combined navigation precision.

The invention aims to provide a method for navigating an underwater robot by matching a surface terrain. The method comprises the following steps of: starting a multi-beam sonar and a multi-beam sonar to collect surface terrain data, correcting the surface terrain data collected by the multi-beam sonar according to sound velocity data collected by a sound-velocity profiler at the same time, determining the matching range of a chart by an inertial navigation device, comparing the collected surface terrain with the chart, determining the precise position of the underwater robot, and feeding the current navigation position information obtained by computing to a main control computer to finish correcting the navigation. The signal of a GPS (global positioning system) does not need to be received in a floating way, an external sonar array does not need to be arranged, the accurate underwater navigation can be finished through an internal sensor, and the return value is the navigation data which can be directly used by the underwater robot to work.

An acoustic underwater navigation system is disclosed. For instance, an underwater receiver determines its position using signals broadcast from an array of acoustic transmitters located near the surface. The position of the array is measured using global positioning system (GPS) technology and the transmitters collectively produce an acoustic signal in which the position and attitude of the array and the GPS time of transmission are encoded. An underwater receiver which is synchronized with the GPS time uses the transmitted position and attitude of the array and the transmission time information to calculate its position.

The invention discloses a particle swarm optimization method for terrestrial magnetism auxiliary navigation track programming. The method comprises the following steps: 1) taking regard of underwater environment constrained condition, establishing an underwater navigation device path programming evaluation model; 2) according to the time, function relation, constraint, target condition and variate in the model, converting the path programming problem to a track optimization problem; 3) employing a mixed algorithm of Dijkstra algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm for track programming, taking roughly selected track as an initial estimation of a optimal solution for input, coding the particle swarm optimization algorithm, and taking time information as particle in a search space, and improving the convergence performance of the algorithm. The optimization method can increase the accuracy and reliability of the terrestrial magnetism navigation track programming.

The invention relates to an underwater object locating device, belonging to the technical field of underwater navigation location. The device consists of an emitter 1, an acceptor 2, a data sampling device 3 and a data processor 4; wherein, the emitter 1 consists of a signal generator 1-1 and a pair of emission electrodes 1-2. The acceptor 2 consists of a receiving electrode 2-1 and a receiving circuit 2-2 which are arranged in array. The data sampling device 3 is used for converting an analog voltage signal output from the receiving circuit into a digital signal, and is interconnected with the data processor 4 by a computer external bus. The data processor 4 is used for processing voltage change signals output by the array of the receiving electrode, thus locating the object body. The device has the advantages that 1. the device is a low frequency system, and closer distance high frequency radioacoustic position location has the characteristics of simple structure of hardware, high efficiency of energy and the like; 2. the device can locate based on the change of detection electric field, thus overcoming the problem that the visual field is limited by optical location.

The invention relates to a high anti-interference adaptive path following method and system. A desired path point is given, the desired path point and the real-time position information of underwaternavigation equipment are inputted into a guidance module, and a desired heading state Psid is calculated through the high anti-interference adaptive path following method. A difference between the desired heading state Psid and actual heading state information Psi of the underwater navigation equipment obtained by a heading sensor module and filtered by a filter module is calculated to obtain a heading state deviation absolute value e(k), the heading state deviation absolute value e(k) is inputted into a CFDL_MFAC controller module, and a desired command u(k) is outputted to an operating mechanism module. The operating mechanism module receives and performs a desired command u(k) (such as a desired rudder angle) such that the underwater navigation equipment constantly approaches the desired heading Psid. According to the method and the system, water flow interference can be effectively resisted without a system model, the system and the method are insensitive to uncertain effects suchas model perturbation and noise and have good robustness and adaptability, and an unmanned aircraft can be quickly driven to track a desired path.

The invention discloses a multipurpose underwater robot which comprises an underwater navigation body, a communication relay buoy, a master control terminal and master control data transmission equipment. The underwater navigation body comprises an autonomous control operation mode, an optical fiber remote control operation mode and a relay remote control operation mode and is sequentially provided with a bow section, a bow portion propelling section, an electronic cabin section, a tail portion propelling section and a main propelling section. An optical fiber socket and a wireless data transmission antenna are arranged at the outer portion of the electronic cabin section. The optical fiber socket is connected with a debugging optical fiber or a watertight optical fiber or a bearing optical fiber in a matched manner. A battery pack, an attitude sensor, a network switch, an optical transceiver and an autopilot are assembled in a cabin shell of the electronic cabin section. By the adoption of the multipurpose underwater robot, through the matched connection of the debugging optical fiber or the watertight optical fiber or the bearing optical fiber, the three operation modes are provided, the robot can be used as a non-cable underwater robot and can also be used as a cable underwater robot, and the beneficial effects of the cable underwater robot and the beneficial effects of the non-cable underwater robot are achieved in the relay and buoy remote control operation mode.

The invention provides an underwater detection robot. The underwater detection robot comprises a robot body. A detection bin, a steering control bin, a buoyancy adjustment bin, a gravity center adjustment bin, a power source bin and a control bin are formed in the robot body. Distance measurement sonar and foresight sonar which are used for scanning the surroundings are arranged in the detection bin. A control system is arranged in the control bin, can receive signals sent out from the distance measurement sonar and the foresight sonar and controls the robot body to conduct an obstacle avoiding action. By the adoption of the underwater detection robot, the functions of underwater navigation, snorkeling, rotation, constant gliding and autonomous obstacle avoidance can be integrated, and the underwater detection robot has the beneficial effects of being small in energy consumption, large in voyage, good in safety, high in survival coefficient, stable in performance, low in noise, flexible in action, long in duration time and the like.

The invention discloses a parallel type vectored propulsion mechanism and an underwater robot provided with the same and belongs to the field of underwater navigation vehicles. The parallel type vectored propulsion mechanism comprises a static platform and a dynamic platform, three motion branch chains are arranged between the dynamic platform and the static platform, the first one is an RUHR motion branch chain, the second one is an RUHU motion branch chain, and the RUHR motion branch chain, the RUHU motion branch chain, the dynamic platform and the static platform jointly form a spherical two-freedom-degree parallel mechanism; an RUC middle motion and transfer branch chain is further arranged between the dynamic platform and the static platform and used for transferring torque and motion of a main propulsion motor to a propeller. According to the parallel type vectored propulsion mechanism and the underwater robot provided with the same, through deflection of the propeller and motion synthesis of the middle motion and transfer branch chain, change of multiple types of postures of the propeller can be achieved, and transfer of motion of the propeller can be further achieved. The parallel type vectored propulsion mechanism and the underwater robot provided with the same have the advantages that the parallel type vectored propulsion mechanism is convenient to install, convenient to control and good in low-speed steering performance, and the branch chains are simple in layout,.

The invention discloses an underwater intelligent self-adapted terrain matching method based on terrain information amount and mainly aims to solve the problems that the terrain information amount of an underwater navigation region is not sufficient or not complete so that the error of an aided navigation system is increased and the long-time accurate navigation and positioning requirements of an underwater vehicle cannot be met. The underwater intelligent self-adapted terrain matching method mainly comprises the following steps: calculating different terrain feature parameter values in the navigation region; calculating a terrain information amount aggregative index based on an intelligent method; and carrying out sampling time calculation and a self-adapted terrain matching algorithm based on a terrain information amount aggregative index value. According to the method, the problems that the terrain information amount of the underwater navigation region is not sufficient so that the error of the aided navigation system is increased and the single terrain feature index can cause the incomplete evaluation on the terrain information amount can be effectively improved; the intelligent method is used for comprehensively considering the influence of each index; the sampling time is adjusted by the terrain information amount in a self-adapted manner, the matching range is enlarged and the matching precision is improved.

The invention discloses an ocean environment underwater navigation body movement track estimation method, and belongs to the field of target movement track estimation. According to the estimation method, firstly, an underwater space movement equation set of an underwater navigation body is built; wave and ocean current value models are respectively built by aiming at the two ocean environment features of ocean wave and ocean current with great influence on the movement track; the movement track parameter change rule when being influenced by the waves and the ocean current during the underwater navigation body vertical water outlet is studied; the rule is used for estimating the movement track of the underwater navigation body. The method has the advantages that the proper starting occasions proper for the underwater navigation body can be selected for a decision maker; the scientific basis can be provided for the attitude control and the like; the technical support can be provided for the relevant work of subsequent underwater navigation body underwater movement occasion and mode making and the like.

An underwater communications system is provided that transmits electromagnetic and / or magnetic signals to a remote receiver. The transmitter includes a data input. A digital data compressor compresses data to be transmitted. A modulator modulates compressed data onto a carrier signal. An electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna transmits the compressed, modulated signals. The receiver has an electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna for receiving a compressed, modulated signal. A demodulator is provided for demodulating the signal to reveal compressed data. A de-compressor de-compresses the data. An appropriate human interface is provided to present transmitted data into text / audio / visible form. Similarly, the transmit system comprises appropriate audio / visual / text entry mechanisms.

An underwater acoustic beacon comprises a cylindrical transducer and at least one spiral wavefront transducer aligned along a common central axis. For use in underwater navigation, the cylindrical and spiral wavefront transducers are activated singly and in combination in accordance with a prescribed sequence.