RU2822933C1 - Device for mooring ships in lock chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: transportation; physics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a device for mooring ships in a lock chamber. Device comprises a lock equipment control unit. Control unit is arranged in lock chamber bottom head to interact with ship to be locked. Control unit includes an AIS (automatic identification system) receiver, a lock computer, a lock gate drive control relay and a Wi-Fi module. Wi-Fi module is configured for wireless communication with the Wi-Fi module of the locked ship, video cameras mounted on the heads of the lock and connected through a switch to the lock computer. Lock computer can communicate via shipboard computer with ship control unit.

EFFECT: automatic fixation of ships without using mooring devices in the lock chamber during its filling and emptying.

1 cl, 4 dwg

Description

The proposed invention relates to the field of operation of water transport, namely to technical means for organizing the process of locking ships. The device is designed to hold vessels at a given point in lock chambers and is aimed at ensuring safe fixation of the position of surface vessels, including unmanned or autonomous ones, at the chamber wall during their locking without the use of mooring devices.

The governing document defining the regulations for movement and passage in the specified navigation facilities is the “Rules for the passage of ships through the locks of inland waterways” (hereinafter: the rules for navigation). According to the adopted regulations, the process of locking ships in lock chambers consists of operations, some of which are performed on the lock (opening and closing the gates, raising and lowering the gates of the water supply galleries), and some on the ship (entering the lock and leaving it, mooring and unmooring) . All operations related to the operation of equipment at the lock are controlled by the lock controller, in turn, the captain of the locking vessel carries out the dispatcher’s orders. At the stage of approaching the lock, the dispatcher via radio communication receives information from the captain about the type of vessel, draft and gives permission to enter the lock and, based on this data, makes a decision on the mooring location of the vessel in the chamber and the intensity of locking. The intensity of sluicing is ensured by the speed and mode of lifting the filling or emptying gates. The lifting mode (uniform, multi-speed or with stops) is established based on the results of laboratory and/or field tests of the lock. Based on practice, there are several programmed modes: for an empty chamber, for small vessels, for large vessels. Also, the dispatcher from the gateway control panel has the ability to manually stop the gates at any time. In turn, the mode of lifting the gates has a direct impact on the magnitude of the force, hydrodynamic effect of the water flow on the locking vessel. According to SP 101.13330.2023, the force on the vessel from the water flow should not exceed the permissible force established for the design vessel, i.e. vessel of the greatest displacement at full draft. The hydrodynamic force on the ship is compensated by the tension force in the mooring cables with which the ship is moored during locking. It is the conditions of not exceeding the breaking force in the mooring lines that limit the intensity of filling and emptying of the lock chamber.

Mooring of ships in the lock chambers is usually done using special mooring devices: fixed hooks, tightly fixed in the walls of the chambers, mooring bollards, stationary or floating eyes, etc. In this case, the main task of the navigator is to bring the ship to the mooring device at such a distance that The sailors on watch could use their hands or a hook to throw the ropes onto the hooks of the floating eyelets from the bow and stern of the ship. To do this, the vessel must be completely stopped at the moment when the bollards of the vessel are opposite the hooks of the floating eyes. In accordance with the labor safety rules for sailors with mooring ropes, the inertia of the ship's forward or backward movement should not be restrained by fastening the mooring ropes to the bollards. If it was not possible to immediately moor the vessel onto two floating eyes, the bow mooring line is first applied and secured, and then, when the propellers are operating, the stern part is brought to the wall and moored. When filling and emptying the lock chamber, the ships moored in it are subject to hydrodynamic forces created by the entry and exit of a significant volume of water. The force resulting from the tension of the mooring cables depends on the displacement of the vessel, the horizontal and vertical angles of inclination of the mooring cables.

However, in some cases, mooring of ships and in the presence of the specified means can be difficult (when the walls of the chamber and floating mooring devices are icing) or completely unsafe. This is especially true for mooring unmanned vessels in locks.

There is a known method for mooring a vessel at a quay wall according to patent RU 2747521, publ. 05/06/2021, for the implementation of which satellite navigation systems are used. The vessel's mooring system includes: a satellite navigation system receiver, a steering gear, a bow thruster, a rudder sensor, a thrust sensor, a program control unit, an angular velocity sensor and a computer into which signals from the vessel's coordinates and the vessel's speed are input from the satellite navigation system receiver , the derivative of the ship's speed and the track angle, from the rudder sensor - the rudder angle signal, from the angular velocity sensor - the angular velocity signal and from the thrust sensor - the thrust signal, radars and a propeller speed controller are additionally used.

The disadvantage of this method is the inability to use a satellite navigation system to determine the position of the vessel in the chamber during locking, when the vessel is at the bottom of the chamber.

A known system for mooring surface objects according to patent RU 2121698, publ. 11/10/1998, which includes two reference points of the mooring support base, on each of which a radio signal receiver, a radio signal decoder, an acoustic signal shaper and an acoustic signal transmitter are installed in series. In addition, the system contains two acoustic signal receivers located at the mooring object, connected to range meters, a radio signal shaper and a radio signal transmitter, a mooring parameters calculator and an indication unit, and the acoustic signal receivers are located at reference points at the base of the mooring object.

The disadvantage of the system is its applicability in a narrow range of tasks only in determining the position of the vessel relative to the mooring points. This system does not contain ship and lock equipment controls necessary to implement automatic locking of unmanned vessels.

There is a known method for mooring a vessel using a laser system according to patent RU 2613465, publ. 03/16/2017, which consists in the fact that before the start of the mooring operation, one laser meter, equipped with a laser beam angle sensor, is installed on the upper deck of the vessel at its bow and stern ends, and each of these laser meters is built into a pre-installed fastening device directly on the bulwark of the upper deck of each of the ends of the vessel, bring the vessel to the mooring object, and before approaching it, transmit to the captain's bridge of the vessel information about the distance to this mooring object, the bow and stern ends of the vessel, which is used when controlling the vessel to perform the mooring operation.

The disadvantage of this method is that it can only be used to control the vessel manually. Also, this system lacks ship and lock equipment controls necessary to implement automatic locking of unmanned vessels.

A mooring device is known, located in the lock chamber and secured to a floating eye (A.S. SU 1402639 A1, IPC E 02B 3/26, published 06/15/1986). The device is controlled by the lock controller and mechanically fixes the vessel with an underwater vacuum suction cup connected by power cables to the floating eye. In standby mode, it is completely located in a niche in the wall of the airlock chamber. The working position corresponding to the reinforced position on the ship's hull is brought by a system of a hinge-lever mechanism that moves the vacuum suction cup to the side of the ship and back, and a vacuum pump that ensures the creation of the required amount of vacuum for fixing the suction cup on the ship's hull.

The disadvantages of the analogue are: manual control through the lock controller and the impossibility of use at subzero air temperatures due to freezing of the floating eye structure elements.

A mooring device is known according to Pat. RU No. 221649, IPC E02B 3/20, publ. 11/15/2023, which, like the analogue described above, is attached to a floating eye. The device can be controlled either manually or automatically, while automatic control is provided by a control unit consisting of: an AIS transponder (automatic identification system), an RTK base station (Real Time Kinematic based on a GPS/GLONASS satellite navigation receiver, a VHF radio modem designed for wireless data transmission from an RTK base station, and a computer, the output of which is connected through a controlled relay to the pneumatic drive of the vacuum pump. The mechanical fixation of the vessel is carried out by a surface vacuum suction device, consisting of three contact pads with suction nozzles located on them. , connected by power cables to a floating eye. In standby mode, the device is located in the niche of the lock chamber wall, and is brought into working position by a system of a hinge-lever mechanism that moves the vacuum suction cup to the side of the vessel and back, and a vacuum pump that ensures the creation of the required amount of vacuum for fixing the suction cup on the ship's hull.

The specified analogue is the closest in purpose and technical essence (prototype) of the claimed device. Its disadvantages are the presence of a special mooring device located in the lock chamber and fixed to a floating eye, which requires constant maintenance of the mechanical part and constant monitoring of the actual parameters of the effort to hold the vessel in a fixed position. In addition, operation of the prototype at sub-zero temperatures in conditions of active ice formation on the floating eye and on the guides along which it moves leads to its freezing and the impossibility of moving along the height of the lock chamber.

The proposed device solves the problem of providing the ability to automatically secure vessels, including unmanned ones, without the use of mooring devices in the lock chamber during its filling and emptying. To solve the problem, the following set of essential features is used: in a device for parking ships in the lock chamber during their locking (containing, like the prototype, a lock equipment control unit installed in the lower head room with the ability to interact with the locking vessel and including: a receiver AIS (automatic identification system) and gateway computer), in contrast to the prototype, the gateway equipment control unit is additionally equipped with a relay for controlling the gateway gate drives, a wi-fi module with the ability to wirelessly communicate with the wi-fi module of the gated vessel, video cameras installed on the heads of the gateway with sides of the upper and lower tails, as well as at the beginning and end of the lock chamber and connected through a switch to the gateway computer, connected via wireless wi-fi connection, through the ship’s onboard computer, to the ship control unit.

The essence of the proposed invention is to provide the ability to automatically secure a vessel, including an unmanned type, in a lock chamber without the use of mooring devices during emptying or filling of the chamber. This result is achieved by synchronizing in time the opening mode of the filling gates and the operation of the vessel's propulsors in such a way that the variable force acting on the vessel from the flow of water filling the chamber is compensated by the force from the rotation of the vessel's propulsors; and adjustments that ensure, based on video surveillance data, the tracking of the vessel’s position in the lock chamber and, when the vessel moves from its original position, by changing the rotation speed of the vessel’s propulsors, the vessel returns to its original position.

A comparison of the proposed device and the prototype showed that the stated technical problem, namely, providing the possibility of automatically securing vessels, including unmanned ones, without the use of mooring devices in the lock chamber during its filling and emptying, is solved as a result of a new set of features, due to :

- individual selection of the mode of filling or emptying the lock chamber for the specific parameters of the locking vessel (size of the vessel, current draft, type of engine and its power, type and parameters of the vessel’s propeller complex)

- use of computer vision technologies.

This proves that the proposed invention meets the patentability criterion of “novelty”.

At the same time, the information search conducted in the field of operation of water transport did not reveal solutions containing individual distinctive features of the invention, which allows us to conclude that the claimed system complies with the “inventive step” criterion.

The essence of the claimed invention is illustrated by graphic materials, where:

in fig. Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of the gateway chamber with the elements of the device;

in fig. 2 schematic representation of the gateway equipment control unit,

in fig. 3 - schematic representation of the ship control unit,

in fig. 4 - image of a typical graph of changes in hydrodynamic force when filling the chamber.

In the figures, the following positions are indicated: 1 - video cameras located on the heads of the lock from the upper and lower tails, 2 - video cameras located at the beginning and end of the lock chamber on special brackets, 3 - vessel, 4 - lock camera, 5 - equipment control unit gateway, 6 - ship control unit, 7 - gateway computer, 8 - wi-fi module, 9 - gateway AIS receiver, 10 - video recording system switch, 11 - control relay, 12 - filling gate drives, 13 - controller (on-board computer) , located on the ship, 14 - speed regulator of the ship's engines, 15 - propeller shaft speed sensor.

The proposed device works as follows.

At the stage of approaching the lock using a video camera system 1 using artificial vision technology, the following parameters are set: type, dimensions, draft of the vessel 3. Based on the established type of vessel from the database available in the computer, the characteristics of the main engine and the rudder complex of the vessel are determined. In order to control and improve safety, the obtained parameters are compared with data from the automatic identification system installed on lock 9. In case of data discrepancy, the option that has the greatest influence on the magnitude of the hydrodynamic force acting from the water flow on the ship during locking is selected. Next, the computer 7, for the specific parameters of the previously determined vessel, calculates the individual, high-speed mode of opening the filling or emptying gates, which directly affects the magnitude and nature of the change in the hydrodynamic force during locking. The main parameter, according to the current SP 101.13330.2023, which affects the magnitude of the hydrodynamic force, is the displacement of the vessel. It is summed up from unchangeable parameters: length, width and a changeable parameter: the draft of the vessel. The main reasons why the individual parameters of the chamber filling mode are calculated are:

- ensuring the conditions for maintaining a stationary position of the vessel (“parking” of the vessel) in the chamber during locking - equality of the thrust force of the propulsion and the hydrodynamic force;

- the least time spent on gateway to be able to use the maximum gateway capacity.

Next, the vessel enters the shipping lock chamber, stops within the useful length of the chamber, limited by the bow and stern stop lines, the ship control unit 6 establishes a wireless connection via Wi-Fi module 8 with the lock equipment control unit 5. After the final stop of the vessel in the lock chamber 4, a system of video cameras 2 connected through a switch 10 to a computer 7 using artificial vision technology records the position of the vessel, which will later be considered the initial position. The completed operations to select the filling or emptying mode for a specific vessel and to video record the initial position allow us to begin the process of moving the vessel along the height of the chamber. The computer 7 supplies a control signal to the control relay 11 of the filling gate drives 12 and the process of water entering the lock chamber begins. Depending on the time elapsed from the start of filling, the hydrodynamic effect of the water flow on the vessel changes, both in direction and intensity, which requires constant monitoring of the number of propeller revolutions using a speed sensor 15 and its adjustment by changing the engine speed 14 This is achieved by transmitting a control signal from the computer 7 to the controller (on-board computer) 13 located on the vessel via a wi-fi wireless communication module 8. If the video recording system 2 detects a displacement of the vessel from its original position, an adjustment is made to the number of revolutions. engine to return the vessel to its original position. At the end of locking, the ship interrupts the Wi-Fi connection and leaves the lock chamber.

The proposed solution allows you to: eliminate the human factor; reduce locking time and labor costs associated with mooring and unmooring the vessel, stopping and starting the vessel’s engines in accordance with the current rules for the passage of ships; lock promising unmanned vessels.

The claimed invention was developed by specialists from the Department of Hydraulic Structures, Structures and Hydraulics of the State University of Maritime and River Fleet named after Admiral S.O. Makarov" as part of a research project. Calculations were made that showed the possibility of using the device on the inland waterways of the Russian Federation.

The foregoing allows us to conclude that the invention meets the “industrial applicability” criterion.

Claims (1)

A device for mooring ships in a lock chamber, containing a lock equipment control unit installed in the lower head of the lock chamber with the ability to interact with the ship being locked and including an AIS (automatic identification system) receiver and a gateway computer, characterized in that it is additionally equipped with a gate drive control relay gateway, a Wi-Fi module with the ability to wirelessly communicate with the Wi-Fi module of the gateway vessel, video cameras installed on the heads of the gateway from the upper and lower tails, as well as at the beginning and end of the gateway chamber and connected through a switch to the gateway computer, connected in in turn, through the ship’s on-board computer with the ship’s control unit.