Automatic system for controlling the propulsive units for the turn of a boat

Abstract

Automatic control system for the turn of a boat equipped with two propulsive lines, each line comprising a propulsion device (6a, 7a), an engine (4, 5), a reversal device (6, 7), and a control hand lever (1, 2) suitable to generate a forward gear request signal (8), a reverse gear request signal (9), and a boat acceleration request signal (10). The system further comprises devices generating a turn request signal (15) and a control unit (3) for the above-mentioned engines (4, 5) which is arranged to acquire the signals (8-10) from the control hand levers (1, 2) and the turn request signal (15), and arranged to generate, as a function of said signals (8-10, 15), two virtual speed signals (17, 18) indicative of the thrust to be developed by the propulsive devices (6a, 7a). The control unit (3) is further arranged to compute the virtual speed signals (17, 18) so as to generate two engine acceleration-deceleration signals (13a, 13b), indicative of the absolute value of the acceleration required for each engine (4, 5), and four drive signals, respectively two forward gear reversing gear signals (11a, 11b) and two reverse gear reversing gear signals (12a, 12b), to be applied to the reversal devices (6, 7) and indicative of the gear direction required for the associated engines (4, 5).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.