Boring or penetrating the earth – With signaling – indicating – testing or measuring – Tool position direction or inclination measuring or...
Patent
1991-04-26
1992-04-28
Novosad, Stephen J.
Boring or penetrating the earth
With signaling, indicating, testing or measuring
Tool position direction or inclination measuring or...
324346, 405184, E21B 4709, E21D 906, G01C 1500, G01V 312
Patent
active
051079380
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting a position of an underground excavator in tunneling the earth, the position being determined as a relative position of the underground excavator relative to a predetermined reference position.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Heretofore, in a so-called shield-method art for tunneling the earth by the use of a shield-type underground excavator, it has been known to determine a position of the underground excavator by making a location survey of the underground excavator by means of a transit, an optical equipment such as a laser unit and like equipments, the laser unit being installed in a starting vertical shaft in the tunneling to issue a laser beam light which is coherent. Namely, in the tunneling, the optical equipment installed in the starting vertical shaft issues the laser beam light to indicate a designed tunneling line. The optical equipment or laser unit issues the laser beam light to a target member mounted on the underground excavator to produce a light spot on the target member, which light spot is measured and analyzed in angle and position so that deviation amounts in angle and position of the underground excavator from the designed tunneling line are determined in the tunneling.
In addition, in tunneling the earth, it has been also known to determine a relative position of the underground excavator relative to a predetermined reference position by means of a suitable system comprising, in combination, a directional gyro, a pressure-gage type sinkage meter, an inclinometer and a distance recorder which uses a length of a segment as a unit for measuring distance.
On the other hand, in submarine-tunnel building, since the number of vertical shafts to be dug is restricted, it is necessary to employ a pair of underground excavators: one of which excavators is installed in a starting vertical shaft to dig a submarine tunnel toward a terminal vertical shaft; and the other is installed in the terminal vertical shaft to dig the submarine tunnel toward the starting vertical shaft; whereby a length of the tunnel to be dug by each of the excavator is reduced. In this case, it is necessary for the excavators to be aligned with a designed tunnel line of the submarine tunnel. However, relative positions of the pair of the excavators have not been ever measured.
The conventional underground excavator using the above-mentioned conventional means for making the location survey of the excavator suffers from the following problems:
(1) A method of making location survey of the underground excavator in a curved tunnel by the use of the transit and the like is disadvantageous in that the method requires many measuring points which make it impossible to make the location survey of the excavator in real time, and, therefore the method is not practical;
(2) A method of making location survey of the underground excavator in a curved tunnel by the use of the laser unit for issuing a laser beam light therefrom is disadvantageous in that a bent portion of the tunnel often prevents the laser beam light of the laser unit installed in the starting vertical shaft from reaching the target member mounted on the excavator, and, therefore it is necessary for the method to often move the laser unit and like optical equipments in the tunneling to an appropriate location for having the laser beam light reach the target member of the excavator. In addition, in the curved tunnel, since it is not possible for the laser unit to have the laser beam light directly pass through the full length of the tunnel, it is necessary to determine relative positions or values of the target member, optical equipments such as the laser unit and the designed tunnel line relative to each other on the basis of relative angles and relative distances between them, so that a tunneling course is determined based on the thus determined relative values, whereby actual deviation amount in current location and current angle of the excavator are calculated based on the thus determ
REFERENCES:
patent: 3712391 (1973-01-01), Coyne
patent: 4656743 (1987-04-01), Thiemann et al.
patent: 4806869 (1989-02-01), Chau et al.
patent: 4984289 (1991-01-01), Arakawa et al.
Mitani Norio
Okamoto Akira
Sakanishi Shoichi
Yamamoto Yoshihisa
Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho Corporation
Novosad Stephen J.
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