Abstract:
The invention is a guidance system used in laying undersea pipe or cable from a pipe-laying vessel when radio transmissions are unreliable. The system processes parameters derived from sensors normally aboard a pipe-laying vessel and sensors cooperating with active winches applying tension to the several anchor lines. The vessel's pitch, roll, and heading angles are supplied from gyrocompass and vertical gyroscopic instruments. Anchor line elevation and azimuth angles with respect to deck coordinates are yielded by conventional angle pick offs associated with fairlead devices, as are the line axial tension and the length of anchor line paid out. Initial conditions, including the initial position of the vessel, are easily obtained in the usual manner. From certain of these parameters, the invention derives intermediate anchor line parameters for use in computing fairlead motion.The intermediate data is used to compute compensated fairlead motion data by first computing apparent fairlead motion from anchor line tension changes. This version of fairlead motion contains undesired terms due to apparent fairlead motion caused by anchor line length changes and also due to actual fairlead motion caused by vessel attitude changes. Therefore, second and third computations are made of the contributions of the latter effects. This is done so that apparent fairlead motion due to anchor line length change and actual fairlead motion due to vessel attitude change may be subtracted from the measure of apparent fairlead motion as calculated from anchor line tension change, yielding the desired compensated fairlead motion value free of significant disturbing components. An estimated value of vessel position change is then obtained by a least squares estimation involving these fairlead motion terms. Correction of vessel position then follows by cooperative operation of the winch and thruster assemblies.
Abstract:
The navigation system permits remote maneuvering of a water-borne structure about a stationary object by utilizing dual sonar ranging. The structure can be self-propelled or towed by a surface craft. The transducer portion of the navigation system is mounted on the structure and the system's remaining portion is on the deck of the surface craft. For complete remote navigation, at least three but preferably four transducers are employed for positioning at the four corners of a rectangle. Each transducer is both sound-emitting and sound-receiving. The sonic impulses from each pair of port and starboard transducers are directed downwardly and inwardly. The travel time for each reflected sonic impulse is directly proportional to the slant range between the transducer and the object. The spacing between each pair of port and starboard transducers and the frequency of the emitted sound impulses are selected so that very accurate measurements are obtainable of the position of the object relative to the transducers. If the object is a pipe it is desirably maintained on a visual display in a longitudinal plane of symmetry for the two pairs of transducers. Any appreciable lateral deviation from the desired position is immediately detected and corrective action can be taken by the surface craft to reposition the structure.
Abstract:
Apparatuses and methods are provided herein for performing marine auto-ranging. Marine auto-ranging may include the functionality to determine current conditions associated with a watercraft (e.g., remaining fuel, location, speed, wind, current, etc.) and determine a range for the watercraft and, in turn, possible destinations for the watercraft that are within range on a map. A marine electronic device may be configured to display a map and overlay the map with an indication of how far a watercraft could travel based on such current conditions, such as a highlighted or shaded geographical area around a current location of the watercraft on the map.
Abstract:
A towed vessel suitable for containing and transporting various liquids is disclosed. The vessel further comprises various features useful in the transportation, navigation, and storage of the towable vessel, both when in use for transporting fluids and when transported in an emptied state. Such features include navigational and positioning devices and methods, power supply devices and methods, and means for filling, inflating, emptying, and deflating a non-rigid, towed vessel. Aspects of embodiments of the present invention further include features useful for purifying or preserving the purity of the fluid to be transported.
Abstract:
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium stores therein a generation program that causes a computer to execute a process. The process includes acquiring positional information including positions of a plurality of ships at a plurality of timings; acquiring, or generating from the positional information of the plurality of ships, sailing route information; and generating closest distance information for each sea area corresponding to positions of closest approach of two ships, from the positional information and the sailing route information, the closest distance information including a statistical quantity of a distance of closest approach between the two ships, the statistical quantity of a distance of closest approach being calculated based on encountering relationship for directions of the two ships and whether or not ship tracks of the two ships are along a sailing route in the sea area.
Abstract:
In an apparatus installed on a boat (A) in plural boats including (A, B) for avoiding collision with the boat (B), there are equipped with first and second radio-wave transceiver units installed at spaced positions that transmit to and receive radio waves of a predetermined frequency from the boat (B), and first and distance calculating units that calculate clearance distances from the boat (B) based on attenuation degree of the radio waves transmitted from the boat (B). An intersection point of circles whose origins in an x-y coordinate plane are set to positions corresponding to the first and second positions and whose radii are set to values corresponding to the calculated clearance distances. Direction and position of the boat (B) are estimated from the intersection point, and an instruction necessary for avoiding collision with the boat (B) is issued based on the estimated direction and position.
Abstract:
An unmanned seismic vessel system can include a hull system configured to provide buoyancy and a storage apparatus configured for storing one or more seismic nodes, each seismic node having at least one seismic sensor configured to acquire seismic data. A deployment system can be configured for deploying the seismic nodes from the storage apparatus to the water column, where the seismic data are responsive to a seismic wavefield, with a controller configured to operate the deployment system so that the seismic nodes are automatically deployed in a seismic array.
Abstract:
A position of a target ship alongside is displayed in animation on a display unit 17 by the computer 11 based on any one of the positional information on the target ship alongside, which is transmitted from an automatic identification system (AIS) of a target ship alongside and is obtained by an AIS communication unit 13, positional information on the target ship alongside, which is obtained by the GNSS communication unit 14 from a global navigation satellite system, and positional information on the target ship alongside, which is manually inputted via an operation unit 18. Therefore, the latest position of the target ship alongside can be always displayed in animation.
Abstract:
A computer 11 of a ship monitoring device 1 arranges one kind of transmission data between, two consecutive start control codes and two consecutive termination control codes. The computer 11 also arranges information indicating a type of the transmission data between the transmission data and the start control codes and between the termination control codes and the transmission data. In this way, the transmission data is transmitted in form of packet data. Therefore, transmission data in information communication between ships and sensed information in information, communication of fenders can be easily distinguished from each other. In addition, a type of information transmitted as the transmission data can be easily identified.
Abstract:
A towed vessel suitable for containing and transporting various liquids is disclosed. The vessel further comprises various features useful in the transportation, navigation, and storage of the towable vessel, both when in use for transporting fluids and when transported in an emptied state. Such features include navigational and positioning devices and methods, power supply devices and methods, and means for filling, inflating, emptying, and deflating a non-rigid, towed vessel. Aspects of embodiments of the present invention further include features useful for purifying or preserving the purity of the fluid to be transported.