JPH0316099B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Table of Contents] Overview Industrial Application Fields Conventional Technology Problems to be Solved by the Invention Means for Solving the Problems Examples Effects of the Invention [Summary] Fish Processing Process When using ultrasonic waves to automatically determine whether or not a fish is incubating eggs based on the reflected echo of the ultrasonic waves that pass through the fish body and reflect off a metal plate, the metal plate is fixed. In addition to transporting the fish and obtaining stable reflected echoes, by using multiple transducers, we were able to prevent mistakes in egg incubation detection due to variations in the position of the eggs, which occur due to the size of the fish and how they are arranged.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention is an automated fish brood discrimination line device that uses ultrasonic waves to automatically determine the presence or absence of brood eggs in fish that are automatically fed out during the fish processing process, and accurately collects only the fish eggs possessed by females. Regarding.

In recent years, the importance of fish resources has been reconfirmed, and as fish eggs have particularly high added value, efficient collection of eggs is extremely important. However, in the past, the egg collection efficiency was not very high, as conventional methods relied on manual labor, such as checking the state of the fish's egg incubation with the human eye and then removing the fish eggs by making an incision in the abdomen. Valuable resources are often wasted.

Therefore, it is desired to realize a technology that automatically determines whether fish are incubating eggs or not, and automatically collects only the fish eggs carried by females.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in order to detect the presence or absence of fish eggs and collect them,
As described above, this method relies on manual labor, and an image discrimination method using ultrasonic holography has been proposed as a method for electronically discriminating fish eggs. However, although images can be identified by the human eye, it is extremely difficult to automatically perform image recognition.

Therefore, as a means of recognition using signal processing that does not rely on image processing, we developed a device for detecting the incubation state of fish.
No. 60-280794'' was proposed and is gaining good results.

The details of this will be explained below.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a fish incubation state detection device.

The pulse generating circuit 1 sends out electric pulses to the vibrator 5. The vibrator 5 converts this electric pulse into an ultrasonic pulse and sends it into the fish body 6. The reception amplification circuit 2 amplifies the electrical signal obtained by converting the reflected wave received by the vibrator 5. The signal processing circuit 3 is the reception amplifier circuit 2
Normalize the attenuation of the multiple reflection echoes amplified by
It is sent to the judgment circuit 4. The determination circuit 4 compares it with a predetermined threshold value and determines the presence or absence of eggs.

The vibrator 5 is in close contact with the fish body 6, and a part of the ultrasonic pulses sent out by the vibrator 5 is reflected on the surface of the fish body 6, and the rest passes through the fish body 6. The light then hits the metal plate 7 placed in close contact with the fish body 6 and is reflected there.

FIG. 6 is a diagram explaining the principle of FIG. 5.

A portion of the ultrasonic pulse sent out from the transducer 5 is reflected by the surface 61 of the fish body 6 and returns to the transducer 5.
The remaining ultrasonic pulse 8 passes through the fish body 6 and is partially reflected by the surface 71 of the metal plate 7 on the opposite side from the vibrator 5. This reflected echo passes through the fish body 6,
Enter vibrator 5.

The remaining ultrasound pulses 9 of the ultrasound pulses 8 enter the metal plate 7 and are reflected at the surface 72. Then, a part of it is further reflected by the surface 71, and the rest becomes a reflected echo', which passes through the fish body 6 and enters the vibrator 5.

A portion of the ultrasound pulse 9 reflected from the surface 71 is
It is further reflected from the surface 72, becomes a reflected echo, passes through the fish body 6, and enters the transducer 5.The multiple reflected echoes that enter the inside of the metal plate 7 and are reflected from the surfaces 71 and 72 are repeated as described above, and the reflected echoes pass through the fish body 6 and enter the transducer 5. 5, but it is attenuated inside the fish body 6 and finally disappears.

When the reflected echo enters the transducer 5, a part of it is reflected on the surface of the transducer 5, becomes an ultrasonic pulse 10 just as if it had been sent out by the transducer 5, passes through the fish body 6, and passes through the metal plate 7. It is reflected by the surface 71 and returns to the vibrator 5 as a reflected echo. As before, some of the ultrasonic pulses 11 are reflected by the surface 72,
It becomes a reflected echo', and further becomes a reflected echo'' and enters the vibrator 5.

A part of the reflected echo is reflected on the surface of the vibrator 5 and then reflected on the surfaces 71 and 72 of the metal plate 7, so that reflected echoes ' and ' are generated in the same manner as described above.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the state of the received waveform in FIG. 5.

As explained in FIG. 5, when the vibrator 5 sends out an ultrasonic pulse, it converts the ultrasonic pulse 12 reflected from the surface 61 of the fish body 6 into an electric signal and sends it to the reception amplifier circuit 2. The reflected waves of the ultrasonic pulses sent into the interior of the fish body 6 pass through the interior of the fish body 6 as explained in FIG. After the propagation time T has elapsed, the signal is received by the transducer 5.

That is, following the detection of the ultrasonic pulse 12, the time T
After the passage of time, the reflected echoes are received, and the reflected echoes ' and '' whose propagation time is delayed in proportion to the thickness of the metal plate 7 are received.

Subsequently, after a propagation time of 2T has elapsed, a reflected echo is received, and reflected echoes ' and '' whose propagation time is delayed in proportion to the thickness of the metal plate 7 are received as described above.

Furthermore, similarly to the above, reflected echoes, followed by reflected echoes ' and '', are received.

By the way, if the fish body 6 is a milt that does not have eggs,
Because the tissue is uniform, the amount of attenuation of the ultrasound pulse is small, and when the animal has an egg, the ultrasound pulse is scattered at the border of the egg, so the attenuation is large.

FIG. 7a shows the state of the received waveform when there is a milt, and FIG. 7b shows the state of the received waveform when there is an egg.

Here, in order to determine the presence or absence of eggs, the attenuation characteristics of multiple reflected echoes related to the thickness of the metal plate 7 that are not affected by the width of the fish body, such as reflected echoes ′ and ″, are normalized by time T. The attenuation characteristics that are not affected by the width of are quantified.

Therefore, by comparing this normalized attenuation characteristic with a threshold value, the presence or absence of eggs can be easily determined.

The signal processing circuit 3 normalizes the attenuation characteristics of the echoes multiplely reflected by the metal plate 7 by the time it takes for the ultrasonic pulse to propagate through the fish body, and sends out a numerical value for determining whether or not the fish is incubating eggs.

FIG. 8 is a detailed block diagram of the signal processing circuit 3 shown in FIG.

At the timing when the electric pulse sent out from the pulse generation circuit is input to the waveform memory 15, the acquisition of the received waveform in the waveform memory 15 is started. Therefore, the received waveform input from the receiving amplifier circuit is stored in the waveform memory 15.

The first reflected echo position detection circuit 16 uses the ultrasonic pulse 12 shown in FIG. 7 from the waveform memory 15 as a reference, and detects the position of the reflected echo first reflected from the metal plate, that is, the waveform shown in FIG. To detect.
The position of this reflected echo indicates the propagation time T, which is proportional to the width of the fish body.

The multiple reflected echo detection circuit 17 detects the multiple reflected echoes that are proportional to the thickness of the metal plate that have arrived following the reflected echoes, ie, the waveforms shown in FIG. 7' and ''.
The attenuation calculation circuit 18 quantifies the attenuation characteristics for multiple reflected echoes received within a certain period of time after the reflected echo detected by the first reflected echo position detection circuit 16, that is, the received waveforms such as ','', etc., and calculates the normalization circuit 19. Send to.

The normalization circuit 19 normalizes the numerical value calculated by the attenuation calculation circuit 18 by the reciprocal of the propagation time detected by the first reflected echo position detection circuit, and sends out a normalized attenuation that does not depend on the width of the fish body.

In this way, the abdomen of the fish 6 is inserted between the vibrator 5 and the metal plate 7, and the presence or absence of fish eggs is determined from the attenuation characteristic of the received waveform determined by the thickness of the metal plate 7, which is independent of the width of the fish 6. are doing.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

When trying to apply the above fish incubation state detection device to an automated line, the following problems arise.

That is, it is necessary to prevent the metal plate 7 facing the vibrator 5 from moving. This is because the metal plate 7 is used as a mounting platform for moving the fish body, and if it moves together with the fish body, stable reflected echoes of ultrasonic waves cannot be obtained due to the effects of vibrations etc. when the metal plate 7 is transported. be.

Also, fish bodies with eggs may be overlooked. This is because fish bodies vary in size, and depending on how they are arranged, the positions of the fish eggs vary, and the vibrator 5 does not necessarily come into contact with the positions of the fish eggs appropriately. be.

[Means for solving problems]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention.

The determining means 25 transmits the electric pulse to the ultrasonic probe 22.
The transducer 23 converts this electric pulse into an ultrasonic pulse and sends it to the fish body 28. This ultrasonic pulse passes through the fish body 28, is reflected by the metal plate 21, passes through the fish body 28 again, returns to the vibrator 23, is converted into an electric signal, and is sent to the determination means 23.
Sent on 5th. The determination means 25 determines whether or not there is incubation, and the result is sent to the determination means 27.

Similarly, the determination means 26 transmits electric pulses to the vibrator 2.
The presence or absence of incubation is determined from the electric signal obtained from the reflected ultrasonic pulse, and the determining means 2
Send on 7.

When fish eggs 29 are present in the fish body 28, the ultrasonic pulses sent out from the transducer 23 pass through the fish eggs 29, so the determining means 25 determines that there is an egg incubation, and the ultrasonic pulse sent out by the transducer 24 Pulse is 2 fish eggs
9, the determination means 26 determines that there are no fish eggs.

The determining means 27 sends out a decision to collect eggs when either the determining means 25 or 26 determines that there are fish eggs, or when both determine that there are fish eggs, and when either determines that there is no incubation, it sends a decision to collect eggs. The structure is configured to send out the final decision.

[Effect]

By having the above configuration, the ultrasonic probe 22
The determination means 25 and 26 determine the results of the examination of multiple locations on the fish body 28 by the plurality of transducers 23 and 24, and the determination means 27 can decide to collect the eggs based on this determination. This eliminates errors in determining the presence or absence of incubation due to variations in the location of eggs.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of FIG. 2.

As explained in FIG. 5, the pulse generation circuit 33 is connected to the transducer 22 of the ultrasonic probe 22 as shown in FIG.
sends out electrical pulses to The vibrator 23 converts this electric pulse into an ultrasonic pulse and sends it into the fish body 28.

A portion of the ultrasonic pulse sent out from the vibrator 23 returns to the vibrator 23 on the surface of the fish body 28. The remaining ultrasonic pulses pass through the fish body 28 and reach the transducer 23.
A part of the light is reflected by the surface of the metal plate 21 on the opposite side, passes through the fish body 28 and enters the vibrator 23 .

The remaining ultrasonic pulses pass through the metal plate 21, are reflected on the opposite surface, and are again connected to the metal plate 21 and the fish body 28.
, and returns to the vibrator 23.

A part of the reflected ultrasound pulse that has returned to the transducer 23 is reflected on the surface of the transducer 23, and the same process as described above is repeated to form multiple reflected echoes.

The above-mentioned reflected ultrasound pulse is attenuated when passing through the fish body 28, but in the case of milt without fish eggs, the tissue is uniform, so the ultrasound pulse is attenuated less, and when it has fish eggs, the ultrasound pulse is Because it is scattered, the attenuation is large.

Here, in order to determine the presence or absence of fish eggs, the attenuation characteristic, which is not affected by the width of the fish body, of the multiple reflected echoes, which is related to the thickness of the metal plate 21, is normalized by time. is quantified.

Therefore, by comparing this normalized attenuation characteristic with a threshold value, the presence or absence of fish eggs can be easily determined. Therefore, the reception amplification circuit 34 amplifies the electrical signal obtained by converting the reflected ultrasonic pulse received by the transducer 23.

The signal processing circuit 35 is a receiving amplifier circuit 34.
Normalize the attenuation of the multiple reflection echoes amplified by
It is sent to the determination circuit 36. The determination circuit 36 compares it with a predetermined threshold value, and when it determines that fish eggs are present, it outputs "1".
is sent to the OR circuit 41, and when it is determined that there are no fish eggs, "0" is sent to the OR circuit 41.

The pulse generating circuit 37 sends out electric pulses to the transducer 24 of the ultrasonic probe 22 as shown in FIG. The vibrator 24 converts this electric pulse into an ultrasonic pulse and sends it into the fish body 28. The reception amplification circuit 38 amplifies the electrical signal obtained by converting the reflected ultrasonic pulse received by the transducer 24.

The signal processing circuit 39 normalizes the amount of attenuation of the multiple reflection echoes amplified by the reception amplifier circuit 38 and sends it to the determination circuit 40 . The determination circuit 40 compares it with a predetermined threshold value, and when it determines that fish eggs are present, ORs "1".
When it is sent to the circuit 41 and it is determined that there are no fish eggs,
“0” is sent to the OR circuit 41.

Therefore, when there are fish eggs, the OR circuit 41
"1" is transmitted, but if there are no fish eggs, "0" is transmitted.

The roller 32, which is driven in the direction of arrow A through the belt 52 by the rotation of the motor 53, moves the belt 30 in the direction of the arrow B together with the roller 54 that rotates accordingly.
The guide plate 31 attached to the belt 30 sequentially slides the fish body 28 on the metal plate 21 and carries it under the ultrasonic probe 22.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the fish transport means.

The metal plate 21 is fixed to a frame 58, and the belt 30 slides on a rail 59 fixed to the frame 58. Therefore, the guide plate 31 attached to the belt 30 can transport the fish 28 by sliding it on the metal plate 21.

The belt 48 is interlocked with the roller 32 driven by the motor 53. The ultrasonic probe 22 attached to a shaft 47 that moves up and down by a cam mechanism 49 driven by the belt 48 is adjusted in advance so as to contact the abdomen of the fish body 28 in synchronization with the movement of the guide plate 31. .

The head position of the fish 28 sliding on the metal plate 21 by the guide plate 31 is aligned by the actuator 45, the head is cut by the head cutter 46, and then the fish body 28 is conveyed under the ultrasonic probe 22. When the ultrasonic probe 22 brings the transducers 23 and 24 into contact with the abdomen of the fish body 28 through the shaft 47, the cam mechanism 49
The determination circuits 36 and 40 operate as described above in synchronization with a signal sent from a sensor (not shown) that detects the operation of a cam (not shown).

Here, “1” is sent from the OR circuit 41 to the timer 56.
is sent and it is decided to carry out egg collection, timer 5 starts.
6, the fish body 28 is moved to the shutter mechanism 4 after a predetermined period of time according to a signal sent from the cam mechanism 49.
2, operate the solenoid valve 55 to send compressed air from the compressor 57 to the air cylinder 51, open the shutter 43, and take only the fish eggs into the pipe 44 connected to the vacuum pump. .

In addition, a fish pusher part 50 interlocking with the cam mechanism 49
When the fish body 28 comes in front of the shutter mechanism 42, the abdominal part of the fish body 28 is pressed using a vacuum cleaner to make the suction of the fish eggs even easier.

Fish body 28 to which “0” is sent from the OR circuit 41
comes in front of the shutter mechanism 42, the shutter 4
3 does not open, so the milt will not be sucked in.

Note that since the metal plate 21 is fixed, the reflected echo is stable, and the presence or absence of incubation can be reliably determined.

In this example, as the abdomen of the fish is aligned,
Although we have described the case where the head is cut off, it can of course also be applied to cases where the abdomen of the fish is not aligned. The vibration chamber may be brought into contact with the abdomen and back.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention is capable of detecting the presence or absence of incubation based on the reflected echo of a stable ultrasonic pulse.
In addition, it is possible to detect the presence or absence of eggs regardless of the size of the fish, the loading direction, etc., and it is possible to reliably collect eggs in an automated line.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a cross section of the fish body transport means. Figure 5 is a block diagram of the fish incubation state detection device, Figure 6 is a diagram explaining the principle of Figure 5, Figure 7 is a diagram explaining the state of the received waveform in Figure 5, and Figure 8. 5 is a detailed block diagram of the signal processing circuit of FIG. 5. FIG. In the figure, 1, 33, 37 are pulse generation circuits, 2, 34, 38 are reception amplifier circuits, 3, 35,
39 is a signal processing circuit, 4, 36, 40 is a determination circuit, 5, 23, 24 is a vibrator, 6, 28 is a fish body,
7 and 21 are metal plates, 15 is a waveform memory, 16 is a first reflection echo position detection circuit, 17 is a multiple reflection echo detection circuit, 18 is an attenuation calculation circuit, 19 is a normalization circuit, and 22 is an ultrasonic probe. , 25, 26 are determining means, 27 are determining means, 29 are fish eggs, 30, 4
8 and 52 are belts, 31 is a guide plate, 32 and 54 are rollers, 41 is an OR circuit, 42 is a shutter mechanism,
43 is a shutter, 44 is a pipe, 45 is an actuator, 46 is a head cutter, 47 is a shaft, 49 is a cam mechanism, 50 is a fish pusher, 51 is an air cylinder, 53 is a motor, 55 is a solenoid valve, 56 is a timer, 57 is a compressor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Converting electric pulses into ultrasonic pulses to generate fish bodies 2.
an ultrasonic probe 22 equipped with a plurality of transducers 23 and 24 that transmit and reflect ultrasonic pulses to electrical signals; An electric pulse is sent to the metal plate 21 and the vibrators 23 and 24, and activated at the timing of the electric pulse, the vibrator 2
The electrical signals obtained by converting the reflected ultrasound pulses received by 3 and 24 pass through the fish body 28 and are transmitted to the metal plate
1, the attenuation characteristics of a plurality of reflected ultrasound pulses arriving during a certain period of time following the first reflected ultrasound pulse are quantified, and this value is calculated as the first reflected ultrasound pulse. The ultrasonic pulse obtained from the arrival time of the reflected ultrasonic pulse is normalized based on the time required to propagate through the fish body.
The metal plate 21 is provided with determining means 25 and 26 for determining the presence or absence of egg incubation based on the normalized value of the attenuation characteristic, and determining means 27 for determining egg collection from the determination results of the determining means 25 and 26. The ultrasonic probe 24 is brought into contact with the fish body 28 that is being conveyed upward, and the reflected ultrasonic pulses that pass through the fish body 28 and are reflected by the metal plate 21 are used to generate waves corresponding to the transducers 23 and 24, respectively. An automated line device for determining whether eggs are incubating in fish, characterized in that if the judgment results of the provided determining means 25 and 26 indicate that even one of them is incubating, it is determined to collect the eggs. 2 The ultrasonic probe 2 is placed against the metal plate 21.
2 and a fish body 2 attached to the belt and mounted on the metal plate 21.
8 is provided, and by driving the belt, the guide plate moving on the metal plate 21 sequentially transports the fish 28 one by one through the ultrasonic probe. Claim 1, characterized in that the child 22 is moved to a position where it comes into contact with the fish body.
Automated line device for determining whether eggs are present in fish as described in Section 1.