System for rapid, secure transport of cargo by sea, and monohull fast ship and arrangement and method for loading and unloading cargo on a ship
First Claim
1. A system for rapid, secure transport of cargo by sea comprising:
- a ship includinga hull producing a high pressure area at a bottom portion of a stern which rises from a point of maximum depth forward of a longitudinal center of the hull to a point of minimum draft at a transom which produces hydrodynamic lifting of the stern at a threshold speed above a length Froude Number of 0.40;
sides of the hull at a datum waterline are non-convex in plan with reference to a centerline of the ship;
a length-to-beam ratio at the datum waterline is between 5 and 7.5 and a displacement to length ratio equal to a displacement of the hull divided by a cube of the length divided by 100 during operation of the hull in carrying fuel and payload is between 60 and 150 and a maximum operating Froude Number is between 0.42 and 0.9;
a weather deck closing a top of the hull, at least one cargo carrying deck disposed below the weather deck and having a driving surface for self propelled, automatically guided vehicles transporting cargo to and from the ship through an opening in the stern of the ship and at least one lower deck disposed below the at least one cargo carrying deck;
at least one water jet disposed within the hull with each water jet having an inlet in a bottom portion of the stern which produces high pressure during motion of the ship;
at least one power unit disposed on one of the at least one lower deck coupled to the at least one water jet for powering the at least one water jet to cause water to be drawn into the inlet of the at least one water jet to produce forward motion of the hull; and
an arrangement for loading and unloading cargo through the opening in the stern of the ship and along the driving surface of the at least one cargo carrying deck, the arrangement includingat least one self-propelled, automatically guided vehicle for carrying cargo to be transported during loading and unloading of the ship;
a self-contained security scanning system on the at least one vehicle for maintaining control and surveillance of cargo in transit on the vehicle;
wherein the ship includes a reader grid having a plurality of readers in different, spaced locations along the at least one cargo carrying deck for reading identification means on cargo on the deck and for communicating readings from the individual cargo identification means to a ship communication system; and
wherein the ship communication system includes a ship server which communicates with global and local information centers, a super base on each cargo carrying deck which is linked to the ship server, and a plurality of base stations on each cargo carrying deck communicating with respective ones of a plurality of groups of readers of the reader grid on the cargo carrying deck.
34 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for rapid, secure transport of cargo by sea includes a monohull fast ship and an arrangement for loading and unloading cargo through an opening in the stern of the ship and along a driving surface of a cargo carrying deck of the ship. The arrangement includes a self-propelled, automatically guided vehicle for carrying cargo to be transported during loading and unloading of the ship and a self-contained security scanning system on the vehicle for maintaining control and surveillance of cargo in transit on the vehicle. The ship includes a reader grid of ship communication system on the cargo carrying deck to which continued control and surveillance of the cargo can be handed off from the vehicle scanning system.
41 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A system for rapid, secure transport of cargo by sea comprising:
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a ship including a hull producing a high pressure area at a bottom portion of a stern which rises from a point of maximum depth forward of a longitudinal center of the hull to a point of minimum draft at a transom which produces hydrodynamic lifting of the stern at a threshold speed above a length Froude Number of 0.40; sides of the hull at a datum waterline are non-convex in plan with reference to a centerline of the ship; a length-to-beam ratio at the datum waterline is between 5 and 7.5 and a displacement to length ratio equal to a displacement of the hull divided by a cube of the length divided by 100 during operation of the hull in carrying fuel and payload is between 60 and 150 and a maximum operating Froude Number is between 0.42 and 0.9; a weather deck closing a top of the hull, at least one cargo carrying deck disposed below the weather deck and having a driving surface for self propelled, automatically guided vehicles transporting cargo to and from the ship through an opening in the stern of the ship and at least one lower deck disposed below the at least one cargo carrying deck; at least one water jet disposed within the hull with each water jet having an inlet in a bottom portion of the stern which produces high pressure during motion of the ship; at least one power unit disposed on one of the at least one lower deck coupled to the at least one water jet for powering the at least one water jet to cause water to be drawn into the inlet of the at least one water jet to produce forward motion of the hull; and an arrangement for loading and unloading cargo through the opening in the stern of the ship and along the driving surface of the at least one cargo carrying deck, the arrangement including at least one self-propelled, automatically guided vehicle for carrying cargo to be transported during loading and unloading of the ship; a self-contained security scanning system on the at least one vehicle for maintaining control and surveillance of cargo in transit on the vehicle; wherein the ship includes a reader grid having a plurality of readers in different, spaced locations along the at least one cargo carrying deck for reading identification means on cargo on the deck and for communicating readings from the individual cargo identification means to a ship communication system; and wherein the ship communication system includes a ship server which communicates with global and local information centers, a super base on each cargo carrying deck which is linked to the ship server, and a plurality of base stations on each cargo carrying deck communicating with respective ones of a plurality of groups of readers of the reader grid on the cargo carrying deck. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A ship for rapid, secure transport of cargo by sea comprising:
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a hull producing a high pressure area at a bottom portion of a stern which rises from a point of a maximum depth forward of a longitudinal center of the hull to a point of minimum draft at a transom which produces hydrodynamic lifting of the stern at a threshold speed above length Froude Number of 0.40; sides of the hull a datum waterline are non-convex in plan with reference to a centerline of the ship; a length-to-beam ratio at the datum waterline is between 5 and 7.5 and a displacement to length ratio equal to a displacement of the hull divided by a cube of the length divided by 100 during operation of the hull in carrying fuel and payload is between 60 and 150 and a maximum operating Froude Number is between 0.42 and 0.9; a weather deck closing a top of the hull, at least one cargo carrying deck disposed below the weather deck and having a driving surface for self propelled, automatically guided vehicles transporting cargo to and from the ship-through an opening in the stern of the ship and at least lower deck disposed below the at least one cargo carrying deck; at least one water jet disposed within the hull with each water jet having an inlet in a bottom portion of the stern which produces high pressure during motion of the ship; at least one power unit disposed on one of the at least one lower deck coupled to the at least one water jet for powering the at least one water jet to cause water to be drawn into the inlet of the at least one water jet to produce forward motion of the hull; a reader grid having a plurality of readers in different, spaced locations along the at least one cargo carrying deck for reading identification means on cargo on the deck and for communicating readings of the individual cargo identification means to a ship communication system; wherein the shin communication system includes a ship server which communicates with global and local information centers, a super base on each cargo carrying deck which is linked to the ship server, and a plurality of base stations on each cargo carrying deck communicating with respective ones of a plurality of groups of readers of the reader grid on the cargo carrying deck. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An arrangement for loading and unloading cargo through an opening in a stern of a ship and along a dock and a driving surface of at least one cargo carrying deck of the ship, the arrangement comprising:
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at least one self-propelled, automatically guided vehicle for carrying cargo to be transported during loading and unloading of the ship; a self-contained security scanning system on the at least one vehicle for maintaining control and surveillance of cargo in transit on the vehicle at all times the cargo is in transit to and from the ship during loading and unloading; wherein the security scanning system includes a reader and a field unit on the vehicle, the reader being capable of reading identification means on a cargo carried by the vehicle and in turn communicating with the field unit, the field unit being capable of communicating with a ship server, a dockside server and a global data center for maintaining control and surveillance of the cargo at all times that it is in transit to and from the shop during loading and unloading. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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12. A method for rapid, secure loading and unloading cargo on a ship comprising:
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supporting cargo having identification means which can be remotely machine read on a self-propelled, automatically guided vehicle; transporting with the vehicle the cargo supported on the vehicle on a dock, through an opening in a stern of the ship and along a driving surface of a cargo carrying deck of the ship; reading the identification means on the cargo during the transporting with a self-contained security scanning system on the vehicle for maintaining control and surveillance of the cargo at all times that it is in transit to and from the ship during loading and unloading. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for rapid, secure loading and unloading cargo on a ship comprising:
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supporting cargo having identification means which can be remotely machine read on a self-propelled, automatically guided vehicle; transporting with the vehicle the cargo supported on the vehicle through an opening in a stern of the ship and along a driving surface of a cargo carrying deck of the ship; reading the identification means on the cargo during the transporting with a self-contained security scanning system on the vehicle; including further reading the identification means on the cargo when the cargo is on the cargo carrying deck of the ship using a reader of a reader grid along the deck and communicating the further reading to a ship communication system; and wherein the communication of the further reading to the ship communication system includes communicating the further reading from a reader of the reader grid to a base station in a section on the deck which in turn communicates the further reading to a super base on the deck which is linked to a ship server.
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Specification