Drive unit for joint propulsion and motion control of a marine vessel
AssigneeAB Volvo Penta
InventorsPeter Tuuliainen, Anders Bergkvist
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drive unit for propulsion and trim control of a marine vessel. The drive unit extends in use from the vessel along a vertical axis to a base plane normal to the vertical axis, and spanned by orthogonal longitudinal and lateral axes. The drive unit includes a first propulsion unit and a second propulsion unit arranged separated along the lateral axis and intersected by the base plane. The first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit are jointly rotatable about the vertical axis, where the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit are individually rotatable about the lateral axis.
Claims19
A drive unit for propulsion and trim control of a vessel,
- the drive unit extending in use from the vessel along a vertical axis to a base plane normal to the vertical axis, and spanned by orthogonal longitudinal and lateral axes,
- the drive unit comprising a first propulsion unit and a second propulsion unit arranged separated along the lateral axis and intersected by the base plane,
- where the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit are jointly rotatable about the vertical axis,
- where the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit are individually rotatable about the lateral axis, and where the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit each comprise an electric or hydraulic elevation motor arranged to control a rotation of the first propulsion unit and a rotation of the second propulsion unit, respectively, about the lateral axis.
A method for controlling propulsion and trim of a vessel, comprising
- configuring a drive unit to extend out from the vessel along a vertical axis to a base plane normal to the vertical axis, where the base plane is spanned by orthogonal longitudinal and lateral axes, configuring a first propulsion unit and a second propulsion unit arranged separated along the lateral axis and intersected by the base plane, where the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit are jointly rotatable about the vertical axis, where the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit are individually rotatable about the lateral axis, where the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit each comprises an electric or hydraulic elevation motor arranged to control a rotation of the propulsion unit about the lateral axis, and
- controlling propulsion and trim of the vessel by controlling joint rotation of the propulsion units about the vertical axis and separate rotations of the first propulsion unit and the second propulsion unit about the lateral axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.