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Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (THSD) - System Definitions

To interface an external device or an internal driver to Qinsy a system needs to be defined.
When defining a system the requirements are System Name and Type, Interface Parameters, Port Parameters and Update Parameters.

This section describes how to define the sensor systems typically used for Trailing Suction Hopper Dredgers (TSHD).
It assumes you have already created a template database, defined the survey geodetics and defined the Object shapes.

Please also refer to 'A Note on Interfacing Parameters'.
Please also refer to 'Dredging Specific Drivers'.  

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Individual sensors are sometimes interfaced directly to the Qinsy computer and sometimes to the dredgers computer/PLC system. In the latter case data from various different sensors may be received via the same port (serial or network) interfaced to the dredger's PC/PLC.

If the data message coming from a sensor cannot be decoded by an existing driver, it may be possible to write your own driver using the I/O Driver Editor described in Qinsy Help.

Valuable additional resources include:

  • The Drivers and Interfacing Manual provides wide ranging information about the many different sensors used in the dredging industry including: driver description, data formats, Database Setup definition, and Online configuration.
  • Help pages
  • The Knowledge Base provides various How-to documents and some How-to videos.

The various types of systems are described separately.

System drivers used in the examples are for illustrative purposes. Please refer to the Drivers & Interfacing Manual for information about the particular system you are interfacing.

Positioning System

  • main positioning systems such as GNSS

TSHD - Dredging Sensor

  • density, weight, volume, mixture velocity, mixture density,
    hopper level, status, flag

Tide System

  • tide input manually, tide gauge telemetry, predicted tide file

Drag Head Positioning

  • necessary observations

TSHD - Dredging System

  • backhoe, cutter, grab, hopper (1 and 2 dredge heads),
    rock dumper, split barge, spreader pontoon

Manual Layback System

  • range combined with orientation (gyro, COG)

Gyro System

  • heading

Pseudo USBL System

  • dX/dY/dZ offset from one node to position another

Output System

  • position, heading, motion, triangles

Cloned Gyro

  • heading of one object copied to another

Object Linking System

  • connects one component to another, e.g. upper suction pipe to inlet,
    upper suction pipe to lower pipe, drag head to lower pipe.

Generic ASCII Data Logger

  • all items that are defined in Qinsy are available for output

Pitch Roll Heave Sensor

  • orientation of main object, ladder, boom, stick, bucket

Miscellaneous

  • TDS, solid density, water density, etc..

Redundancy Monitor

  • determines the primary QINSy for data output

Surface Navigation System

  • range, angle, bearing (true), vertical angle

Underwater Sensor System

  • draft, depth, altitude, pressure, sound velocity, revolution


Return to: Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger - Setup

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