SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A MARINE VESSEL AUTOPILOT
First Claim
1. An autopilot system comprising:
- a navigation application for computing angular position and angular turn rate of a pilot line and wherein said pilot line provides directional guidance to a ship and comprises a vector having one end attached to a point on the ship and a second end pointing to a desired direction;
an autopilot steering application for calculating steering commands for a ship steering device wherein said autopilot steering application receives said computed pilot line angular position and angular turn rate and calculates angular position steering commands for said steering device; and
wherein said ship steering device steers the ship and is set according to the calculated steering commands to steer the ship so that the ship'"'"'s velocity vector lines up with the pilot line.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An autopilot system includes a navigation application for computing angular position and angular turn rate of a pilot line and an autopilot steering application for calculating steering commands for a ship steering device. The pilot line provides directional guidance to a ship and is a vector having one end attached to a point on the ship and a second end pointing to a desired direction. The autopilot steering application receives the computed pilot line angular position and angular turn rate and calculates angular position steering commands for the steering device. The steering commands are calculated by taking into account the difference between the pilot line angular position and the ship'"'"'s angular position and the difference between the pilot line angular turn rate and the ship'"'"'s angular turn rate.
38 Citations
39 Claims
-
1. An autopilot system comprising:
-
a navigation application for computing angular position and angular turn rate of a pilot line and wherein said pilot line provides directional guidance to a ship and comprises a vector having one end attached to a point on the ship and a second end pointing to a desired direction; an autopilot steering application for calculating steering commands for a ship steering device wherein said autopilot steering application receives said computed pilot line angular position and angular turn rate and calculates angular position steering commands for said steering device; and wherein said ship steering device steers the ship and is set according to the calculated steering commands to steer the ship so that the ship'"'"'s velocity vector lines up with the pilot line. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for automatically steering a ship comprising:
-
providing a navigation application for computing angular position and angular turn rate of a pilot line and wherein said pilot line provides directional guidance to a ship and comprises a vector having one end attached to a point on the ship and a second end pointing to a desired direction; providing an autopilot steering application for calculating steering commands for a ship steering device wherein said autopilot steering application receives said computed pilot line angular position and angular turn rate and calculates angular position steering commands for said steering device; and wherein said ship steering device steers the ship and is set according to the calculated steering commands to steer the ship so that the ship'"'"'s velocity vector lines up with the pilot line. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. A method for automatically steering a ship comprising:
-
selecting a voyage plan, wherein said voyage plan comprises at least first and second waypoints connected by a track line; receiving ship'"'"'s current position from a position sensor; comparing ship'"'"'s current position relative to said waypoints, and if there is an offset from the track line, computing angular position and angular turn rate of a pilot line for reducing said offset to zero and wherein said pilot line provides directional guidance to the ship; calculating ship steering commands by taking into account the difference between the pilot line angular position and the ship'"'"'s angular position and the difference between the pilot line angular turn rate and the ship'"'"'s angular turn rate; and setting ship'"'"'s steering device angular position according to the calculated steering commands, thereby adjusting ship'"'"'s angular position so that its velocity vector lines up with the pilot line. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
-
Specification