Desert Star PILOT Page 2 Operator'S Manual Download

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PILOT Quick Reference Card

PILOT COMPONENT

FUNCTION

Surface Station Box (STM-1 or STM-10) Serves as the junction between Sonar

Transducers and the PC.

Summary of Contents for PILOT

Page 1: ...PILOT Precision Underwater Acoustic Positioning System Operator s Manual Version 4 1 March 2007 Desert Star Systems LLC 3261 Imjin Marina CA 93933 831 384 8000 831 384 8062 FAX ...

Page 2: ...www desertstar com Copyright 2007 Desert Star Systems PILOT Quick Reference Card PILOT COMPONENT FUNCTION Surface Station Box STM 1 or STM 10 Serves as the junction between Sonar Transducers and the PC ...

Page 3: ...For this reason sound is used in many underwater applications Common examples include depth sounders imaging sonars and fish finders Principal Components Of The PilotTM System The Surface Station is the centerpiece of the PILOT system Three cabled sonar transducers antennae for sound are connected to the surface station and lowered over the side of the boat The transducers form a triangle which is...

Page 4: ...ansmission of the interrogate and the reception of the ROV reply at transducers 1 2 and 3 Because the speed of sound in water is fairly well known these signal run times are easily converted into distances d1 d2 d3 Finally a little trigonometry yields the position of the ROV This method of tracking is commonly known as short baseline tracking The word baseline refers to the imaginary lines that co...

Page 5: ...pared against the SBL technology does have limits The further you move away from the location of your surface station transducers the further the tracking accuracy expressed in meters will decline In addition if you are using GPS and heading sensor integration in order to operate in a geo referenced lat lon or UTM frame of work the error inherent in those sensors will add to the overall positionin...

Page 6: ...Replay the survey record 2 Save images of the survey record 3 Create the report document 4 Make the survey record portable Pilot System Components The specific components included with the Pilot system will vary depending upon your configuration Typical components include 1 1 Mobile Station A TLT VLT or DS mobile station 2 An STM surface station 3 Three surface station sonar transducers on 15m or ...

Page 7: ...should be done when you first receive the Pilot system The first operation should be at an inactive test vessel in a quiet location allow a day to install and learn how to use it Installation Tasks 1 Charge the batteries 2 Prepare the stations 3 Install software 4 Mount the Mobile station ...

Page 8: ... you what it means Always try to charge the batteries a day or two before a mission The nickel cadmium batteries in the baseline stations slowly discharge themselves over a period of 6 months even if they re not being used The batteries provide about 20 hours of continuous use with standard power Prepare the Hardware The stations should be operational after you have charged them These are the task...

Page 9: ...Charge done Rapid blink Low battery No blink Station off or battery dead Table 3 1 Blink Pattern Meanings Installing the Software The software should install itself when you insert the CD into the computer if it doesn t do this you can click on the setup exe file in the CD directory to initiate the auto install program Mounting the Mobile Station Figure 3 2 Pony bottle bracket mount ...

Page 10: ...TLT or possibly Velcro to mount a DS 1 Connect the Surface Station Figure 3 3 Velcro mounted DS 1 Connect the STM to an available PC RS 232 port If you are using a computer without a legacy RS 232 port a USB adapter will be required Insure that the proper COM port has been selected in the DiveBase application The COM port can be changed through the Options Mobile Station Com Ports option on the me...

Page 11: ...he surface station sonar transducers over the side of the ship dock or dam 2 Enter surface station sonar transducer positions relative to each other in the DiveBase software 3 Check and enter underwater visibility to define the width of the position painting trace 4 Activate and deploy the mobile station 5 Conduct a noise test Good Transducer Mounting Is Key To Optimizing Performance The sonar tra...

Page 12: ... located to the left or the right of that line The length of the baselines relates directly to the accuracy of the ROV direction provided by PILOT If the baseline is 3 meters long the direction reading will be accurate to about 5 degrees If the transducer spacing is 30 meters the direction accuracy will be about 0 5 degrees On most ship operations the 1 2 baseline will be longer than the 1 3 basel...

Page 13: ...r cable up transducer head down orientation by the weight The approach lends is itself to anchored operations as well as live boat operations as long as the weight and line strength is dimensioned properly to keep the transducer down even at the highest conceivable vessel speed Of course caution must be taken to prevent the transducer from getting caught up in the ship s propeller Surface Station ...

Page 14: ...p A shadow is thus created behind the body A transducer located in that shadow may not pick up sonar energy It is important to ensure that transducers are placed such that no path blockage will occur The system can tolerate temporary shadowing but a permanent blockage will result in loss of navigation and communication capabilities There are many natural and man made noise sources under water All ...

Page 15: ... number of feet by 0 3048 Quick Conversion 10 feet 3 meters approximately To convert meters back to feet if you ever need to multiply the number of meters by 3 2808 1 Start the DiveBase program 2 Select Register and Calibrate Baseline Stations from the Action menu 3 The window that pops up has places to enter all of the numbers in meters These numbers can be entered using the mouse to click on the...

Page 16: ...e left one meter to the right Good visibility or an acoustic imaging system will allow you to paint a wider swath Choose Filter Settings from the Item menu and enter the approximate visibility in the appropriate box Activate and Deploy the Mobile Station 1 Activate the mobile station Make sure you get the ready blink pattern one second on and three seconds off 2 Select Start Real Time Tracking fro...

Page 17: ...ithout a noise test doing one and then setting the detection threshold is a prudent step just to be aware of the noise on the site and estimate the impact in terms of tracking range reduction that it might have on your operations today But be aware Once you set the detection threshold you have overridden the system s auto adjust and it will maintain your setting until you switch the system off and...

Page 18: ...tem Status Indicators During real time surveying and replay mode system status is reported by the System Status Indicators bottom of the main screen The System Status Indicator group is made up of a Position Signal Indicator and four baseline station Range Indicators one for each station The baseline station Range Indicators have two possible states red or green Successful operation is indicated b...

Page 19: ...acing the mouse pointer over them callouts will indicate their functions They are also pictured and labeled with their functions in the Display section of the Introduction as well as in Appendix 3 Toolbar Buttons Record Annotations To enter an annotation into the survey record choose Add Annotation from the Item menu or hit the space bar and fill in the appropriate information when the Annotation ...

Page 20: ...r or electrical interference through noise on power supply lines Test for power line noise by removing both the ROV transponder and the surface station PC from AC power Test for radio interference by shutting off all ROV systems Use battery power a good generator or a true sine wave inverter if power line noise is a problem Move the ROV transponder away from the ROV to locate radio interference th...

Page 21: ...he error exceeds the maximum error defined in the filter settings Constantly Displays Red Real Time Only Communications problem Cable has been disconnected on mobile station Check cable connection to mobile station Power loss Mobile station has lost power Check power connection external power or battery charge Transducer is out of range or in a shadowed area Transducer s battery is dead ...

Page 22: ...Appendix B Hot Keys Keyboard Shortcuts Menu Command Hot Key s Function if it s not self explanatory File Load Record File Ctrl L Loads a record ...

Page 23: ...m screen Close Ctrl Q Closes Application Action Start Real Time Tracking T Starts tracking of the mobile station a new record Register And Calibrate Baseline Stations Dialog C Launches baseline registration and calibration dialog End Real Time Tracking E Ends tracking of the mobile station closes record Replay A Record R Generate Survey Report Image Ctrl S Saves full DiveBase image currently selec...

Page 24: ... Filter Settings Ctrl F Allows adjustment of Visibility and other settings Add Annotation When in Tracking Mode hit the SPACE BAR Remove Annotation Delete Key If An Annotation is selected Delete Key with remove it Remove All Annotations Add Way Point When in Tracking Mode hit the X key Remove Way Point Delete Key If A Waypoint is selected Delete Key with remove it Remove All Way Points Keystrokes ...

Page 25: ...ility N Launch Noise Test Dialog only active during realtime tracking Up Arrow Pan Up Down Arrow Pan Down Right Arrow Pan right Left arrow Pan left I ZOOM IN O ZOOM OUT SPACE BAR Add annotation at mobile station location allows free text entering F5 Add Quick Annotation 1 F6 Add Quick Annotation 2 F7 Add Quick Annotation 3 ...

Page 26: ...ort image saves all items displayed Ctrl C CLEAR SCREEN CTRL A LOAD ANNOTATIONS from file CTRL W LOAD WAYPOINTS from file CTRL L LOAD a RECORD Others CTRL ATL Q CLOSE Quit APPLICATION CTRL G Launch GRATICULE SETTINGS dialog G VIEW Hide GRATICULE A VIEW Hide ANNOTATIONS W VIEW Hide WAYPOINTS Appendix C Toolbar Buttons Button Name Description ...

Page 27: ...ool Allows fine control over zooming click and drag a box to zoom to that box Right click zoom in left click zoom out Shows annotations Shows Waypoints Shows Graticule layer Inserts Annotation Inserts Waypoint Graticule Setting Adjustment Calls up Graticule Setting Dialog window for adjusting the values of the graticule Appendix D Additional Capabilities in DiveBase SeaFloor ...

Page 28: ...are just the immediately noticeable differences In this scenario there could have been multiple targets in the water we could have integrated GPS to provide geo referenced precision tracking anywhere such as for pipeline surveys and tracking data can be exported in real time to other systems or software such as Hypack The table lists the additional features available with the DiveBase Seafloor sof...

Page 29: ...T mode See the PILOT manual for details You are now capable of using GPS to coordinate the location of your stations during the chart overlay and the chart map registration During Chart Registration you take two reference points from a real world map Position Data Export This allows you to export the data to another charting system such as Hypak or another computer using a dedicated serial com por...

Page 30: ...annotation is marked by a green cross hair and an identifier name on the tracking screen When you click on a location in replay mode the associated text and image appears in a pop up window Overall annotations are a powerful means of documenting and mapping underwater observations Preparations for annotation To enable image capture select Action Image Capture A pop up video window will now appear ...

Page 31: ...Base SeaFloor Chart Registration is software that comes with DiveBase SeaFloor allowing you to register the chart map image to later use in SeaFloor Here are the steps to follow when using the Chart Registration software First pull up and run the software which you can find in the same location as DiveBase SeaFloor Step 1 Select File Start Single Image Wizard and a window will pop up walking you t...

Page 32: ...on will be dismissed automatically Then you go into DiveBase SeaFloor and select File Load Map File point yourself to the correct folder and load the map file you have just created After the map file has been selected it will show up as a Chart Overlay Rotating an image for north alignment prior to registration There are a few other key notes to take into factor when registering an image If it is ...

Page 33: ...al is to reference an area to an actual map of the area itself By defining the area with the Chart Registration you can further understand the overall value of GPS Integration because you can see its effects Remove the map and your reference is only to the baseline survey but add the map and your reference changes to a Real World survey Position Data Export You have the utility available to export...

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