Systems and methods for determining a heading value of a marine vessel

• US 9,377,780 B1
• Filed: 03/07/2014
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brunswick Corporation
• Original Assignee: Brunswick Corporation
• Inventors: Arbuckle, Jason S., Snyder, Matthew W., Kirchhoff, Thomas S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Olszewski, John R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Boomer, Jeffrey
• Application Number:
  US14/200,831
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B63H 1/00 Propulsive elements directly acting on water jet propulsion B63H11/00
• CPC Class Codes: B63H 25/04 automatic, e.g. reacting to compass
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/08 involving use of the magnetic field of the earth
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/203 Specially adapted for sailing ships
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/08 Control of attitude, i.e. control of roll, pitch, or yaw
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0875 specially adapted to water vehicles

Abstract

A method for determining a heading value of a marine vessel includes determining a first estimate of a direction of the marine vessel based on information from a first source and determining a second estimate of a direction of the marine vessel based on information from a second source. The method includes inputting the first estimate and the second estimate to a control circuit, which scales each of the first estimate and the second estimate and adds the scaled estimates together so as to determine the heading value. A system for determining a heading value of a marine vessel is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for determining a heading value of a marine vessel, the method comprising:

determining a speed of the marine vessel;

determining a first estimate of a direction of the marine vessel based on information from a first source that detects the direction of the marine vessel with respect to Earth'"'"'s magnetic field;

determining a second estimate of the direction of the marine vessel based on information from a second source that detects the direction of the marine vessel based on a vessel course over ground; and

inputting the speed, the first estimate, and the second estimate to a control circuit;

wherein the control circuit scales each of the first estimate and the second estimate and sums the scaled first estimate and the scaled second estimate together so as to determine the heading value;

wherein the control circuit weights the first estimate more heavily than the second estimate when the marine vessel is operating at a low speed, and weights the second estimate more heavily than the first estimate when the marine vessel is operating at a high speed; and

wherein the control circuit provides the heading value to a heading control section, which compares the heading value to a commanded heading in order to determine a corrective steering action and output a corrective steering command and orient the marine vessel at the commanded heading based on the corrective steering command.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a yaw rate of the marine vessel; and

inputting the yaw rate to the control circuit;

wherein the control circuit determines a first coefficient by which to scale the first estimate based upon the speed and the yaw rate and a second coefficient by which to scale the second estimate based upon the speed and the yaw rate.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the control circuit inputs the speed and the yaw rate into a look-up table to determine the second coefficient.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the control circuit determines the first coefficient according to the following equation:

first_coefficient=1−

second_coefficient.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the second coefficient is greater than the first coefficient when the marine vessel is operating at a high speed and a high yaw rate.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first coefficient is greater than the second coefficient when the marine vessel is operating at a low speed and a low yaw rate.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the control circuit sets one of the first estimate and the second estimate as the heading value when the first estimate differs from the second estimate by more than a threshold.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the control circuit sets the heading value equal to the first estimate when the first estimate differs from the second estimate by more than the threshold and the marine vessel is operating at a low speed and a low yaw rate.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the control circuit sets the heading value equal to the second estimate when the first estimate differs from the second estimate by more than the threshold and the marine vessel is operating at a high speed and a high yaw rate.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first source is a magnetic compass and the first estimate is a compass heading of the marine vessel.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second source is a global positioning system receiver and the second estimate is the vessel course over ground.

12. A system for determining a heading value of a marine vessel, the system comprising:

a speed sensor that determines a speed of the marine vessel;

a compass that determines a compass heading of the marine vessel;

a global positioning system receiver that calculates a course over ground of the marine vessel;

an autopilot system that one of receives and determines a commanded heading of the marine vessel; and

a control circuit that scales each of the compass heading and the course over ground and sums the scaled compass heading and the scaled course over ground together so as to determine the heading value;

wherein the control circuit weights the compass heading more heavily than the course over ground when the marine vessel is operating at a low speed and weights the course over ground more heavily than the compass heading when the marine vessel is operating at a high speed;

wherein the control circuit compares the heading value to the commanded heading in order to determine a corrective steering action and output a corrective steering command and orient the marine vessel at the commanded heading based on the corrective steering command.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a yaw rate sensor that determines a yaw rate of the marine vessel;

wherein the control circuit determines a first coefficient by which to scale the compass heading based upon the speed and the yaw rate and a second coefficient by which to scale the course over ground based upon the speed and the yaw rate.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first coefficient is different than the second coefficient.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the second coefficient is greater than the first coefficient when the marine vessel is operating at a high speed and a high yaw rate.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first coefficient is greater than the second coefficient when the marine vessel is operating at a low speed and a low yaw rate.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the control circuit sets one of the compass heading and the course over ground as the heading value when the compass heading differs from the course over ground by more than a threshold.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the compass is a magnetic compass.