Marine propulsion control system and method with rear and lateral marine drives
AssigneeBrunswick Corporation
InventorsMatthew E. Derginer, Kyle F. Karnick
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A marine propulsion system for a marine vessel includes at least one steerable rear marine drive that generates forward and reverse thrusts, wherein the at least one rear marine drive is steerable to a range of steering angles, a lateral marine drive configured to generate starboard and port thrusts on the marine vessel, and a yaw sensor configured to measure yaw movement of the marine vessel. A control system is configured to control steering and thrust output of the at least one steerable rear marine drive to propel the marine vessel straight forward or straight backward and control thrust output of the lateral marine drive based on the measured yaw movement.
Claims20
A marine propulsion system for a marine vessel comprising:
- at least one steerable rear marine drive that generates forward and reverse thrusts, wherein the at least one steerable rear marine drive is steerable to a range of steering angles;
- a lateral marine drive configured to generate starboard and port thrusts on the marine vessel;
- a sensor configured to measure yaw movement of the marine vessel;
- a control system configured to:
- control steering and thrust output of the at least one steerable rear marine drive to propel the marine vessel straight forward or straight backward;
- and
- while the steering and thrust output of the at least one steerable rear marine drive is controlled to propel the marine vessel straight forward or straight backward, control thrust output of the lateral marine drive based on the measured yaw movement.
A method of controlling a marine propulsion system for a marine vessel, the method comprising:
- controlling steering and thrust output of at least one steerable rear marine drive to propel the marine vessel straight forward or straight backward;
- measuring yaw movement of the marine vessel with a sensor;
- and
- controlling thrust output of a lateral marine drive based on the measured yaw movement while the at least one steerable rear marine drive is controlled to propel the marine vessel straight forward or straight backward.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.