Control system for a vessel with a gyrostabilization system
AssigneeMarine Motion Control, LLC
InventorsDavid S. Rubenstein, Richard H. Akers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A control system architecture and algorithm to manage a gyrostabilization system for a marine craft. The control system may manage other effectors in addition to the gyrostabilization system. The objective of the control system software is to utilize any and all available control authority so as to bring about the desired change in the vessel's dynamic state. This control authority is produced by the gyrostabilization system or a combination of the gyrostabilization system with a number of other potential actuation systems or effectors. The focus of the gyrostabilizer control portion is the control and stabilization of the vessel's roll axis in particular
Claims17
A control system that converts sensor inputs to gyrostabilization control outputs comprising:
- a. a block that utilizes sensed vessel attitude, and angular rates, the gyrostabilizer pitch rate and angle, and the rotor spin state, and identifies the operating mode of the vessel and its stabilizer;
- b. a block that uses the operating mode of the vessel to compute the roll acceleration required to stabilize the vessel, wherein the block is a roll rate damping system;
- c. a block that converts the roll acceleration commands and the vessel sensed attitude and angular rates to commands for the pitch gimbal servo system;
A control system to manage the gyrostabilization rotor spin rate comprising:
- a. a sensor to detect the rotor spin rate;
- b. a proportional-integral controller (PI controller) that accepts spin rate sensor data and rotor spin-up, spin-down or steady state mode, and calculates an output for the rotor spin servo
A control system that converts sensor inputs to individual outputs for a gyrostabilization system and for trim tabs comprising:
- a. a Command Resolution/Target Attitude Profile block that converts pilot inputs into vessel-fixed roll, pitch and yaw acceleration commands and generates a target attitude profile. The commanded accelerations are fed-forward and combined with state errors, computed using the target profiles and measured states to produce a feedback component.
- b. a block that utilizes sensed vessel attitude, and angular rates, the gyrostabilizer pitch rate and angle, and the rotor spin state, and identifies the operating mode of the vessel and its stabilizer;
- c. a block that uses the operating mode of the vessel to assess anticipated effectiveness of the control resources and whether launch mode is active
- d. a function that compares the combined acceleration command with the anticipated effectiveness of the trim tabs and the gyrostabilizer. This function selects the preferred effector, and produces a control resource allocation vector with command requirements for the gyrostabilizer control and the trim-tab control.
- e. a function to generate commands for the gyrostabilizer gimbals. If the vessel is in the water the function utilizes the control vector, derived from pilot inputs, produced in the previous step. If the vessel has launched out of the water, the function utilizes the same launch control method described in (4) above
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.