Furuno Electric Company Limited

Shinji Ishihara

Koji Nishiyama

Takehiko Nishimura

Masato Okuda

Yasushi Nishimori

Yuriko Onishi

Hiroshi Iino

Tatsuo Hayashi

Mitsuhiro Inouchi

Osamu Kubota

Koji Tokuda

Yasuo Ito

Emi Okazaki

Norio Matsuhiro

Takanori Satoh

Souichi Kajiwara

Nobuharu Yamashina

Shigeru Aoyama

A navigation planning method and apparatus comprising a chart data receiving terminal configured to receive a chart data including position information of one or a plurality of targets; a waypoint receiving terminal configured to receive a plurality of waypoints including a latest waypoint for a navigation route of a movable body; a potential waypoint receiving terminal configured to receive a potential waypoint being movable on the chart; and processing circuitry configured to: determine a position of the potential waypoint as a next waypoint following the latest waypoint, the potential waypoint being movable, wherein the potential waypoint is determined by: receive a current position data of the potential waypoint; receive position information of the plurality of targets located within a predetermined distance from the current position of the potential waypoint; calculate an angle between a first bar and a second bar on the chart, wherein the first bar is to connect the latest waypoint with the potential waypoint and the second bar is to connect the potential waypoint with the plurality of targets; and output an activating signal when the calculated angle is equal to a predetermined value.

Method and apparatus for navigation planning

An underwater sounding apparatus includes a transducer transmitting an acoustic sounding beam along a plurality of directional surfaces that intersect in three-dimensions and receiving echoes returning from within a fish school using receiving beams. The transducer can form the receiving beams in directions generally along a substantially vertical planar directional surface and in directions generally along a substantially umbrella-shaped directional surface formed around the ship, the umbrella-shaped directional surface intersecting both a horizontal plane and the vertical, planar directional surface. A signal processing section calculates fish quantity information about the fish school by constructing pseudo-three-dimensional data from data obtained by the receiving beam. Also, the signal processing section may binarize the data obtained by the receiving beams and calculates an approximate value of the volume of the fish school by constructing pseudo-three-dimensional data from the binarized data.

Underwater sounding apparatus and method capable of calculating fish school information, volume of fish school and backscattering strength of single fish

A sonar emits an ultrasonic wave into the water from a transducer on the basis of a transmission signal outputted from a transmission circuit, receives an echo reflected in the water with the transducer and converts the echo into an electric signal, and displays underwater information on a display unit on the basis of an echo signal extracted by processing the electric signal. A tailing signal removing unit for removing a tailing signal and extracting only the echo signal is provided in the sonar such that a video of a surface layer fish shoal is clearly displayed on a screen of the display unit without being hidden by a video of the tailing signal.

Sonar

An automatically tracking scanning sonar alternately performs horizontal scanning and vertical scanning and a target lock processor calculates a predicted position of a target based on an echo signal previously received from the target when the echo signal from the target is interrupted. A selector sets a range, tilt angle and sounding direction and outputs them to a transmit-receive controller such that the scanning sonar can scan the predicted target position. As the depth of the target is determined by performing the vertical scanning, the tilt angle of an umbrellalike beam pattern produced by the horizontal scanning can be varied to follow the target by controlling the tilt angle based on target depth information even when the target moves in vertical directions. It is therefore possible to automatically track the target in a reliable fashion.

Automatically tracking scanning sonar

A mixer shifts the center frequency of a received signal to a baseband according to a center frequency detected by a center frequency detector or a center frequency estimated from ship speed, for example, by a center frequency estimator. The passband of a variable passband filter varies according to a bandwidth detected directly from the received signal by a bandwidth detector or a bandwidth estimated from the pulselength of a transmitting signal by a bandwidth estimator, whereby the bandwidth of a baseband signal output from the mixer is limited to remove undesired noise components in the received signal.

Underwater sounding apparatus

In a cylindrical transducer constructed of a plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays arranged in a circular form, the ultrasonic transducer arrays is divided into a plurality of groups, and tilt angles of transmitting and receiving beams are controlled to compensate for swing motions of the cylindrical transducer depending on which group the individual ultrasonic transducer arrays belong. Provided that the uncompensated tilt angle of the beam is a and the angle of inclination of the cylindrical transducer in a particular direction is b, the tilt angle of the beam formed by a transducer array in the inclining direction should be adjusted to &agr;&minus;&bgr; and the tilt angle of the beam formed by a transducer array in the opposite direction should be adjusted to &agr;&plus;&bgr;.

Method of and apparatus for controlling beams produced by a cylindrical transducer

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

The present invention relates to a display system for displaying a past track of the ship, the present position of the ship, and a future predicted track of the ship. A display system according to the present invention generates coordinate data representing a desired pattern based on the ship's speed and the ship's bearing in order to display a past track of the ship and a future predicted track of the ship.

System for displaying track of a moving body

The present invention relates to a display system for displaying a past track of the ship, the present position of the ship, and a future predicted track of the ship, A display system according to the present invention generates coordinate data representing a desired pattern based on the ship's speed and the ship's bearing in order to display a past track of the ship and a future predicted track of the ship.

Growing community of inventors

Nishinomiya, Japan

Shinji Ishihara