Apparatus and methods for the launch and recovery of craft from and to a host ship
AssigneeBAE SYSTEMS plc
InventorCraig Sutherland
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for determining and displaying the suitability of water conditions in a zone for the launch or recovery of a smaller craft (10) from or to a host ship (12) is disclosed. The system and method detect one or more external environment parameters such as the height, direction and period of the swell, and one or more parameters relating to the ship operating conditions such as the heading, speed, pitch and roll angles, and processes these to determine the suitability of the conditions for launch or recovery.
Claims20
Apparatus for providing an indication of the suitability of water conditions in a launch/recovery zone for launch or recovery of a smaller craft from or to a host ship, which apparatus comprises:
- sensors for detecting one or more parameters relating to the external environment of the host ship selected from:
- swell height
- swell direction
- swell period
- sensors for detecting one or more parameters relating to the host ship, selected from:
- current ship heading
- current ship speed
- ship pitch angle
- ship roll angle, and
- a processor for receiving and processing the detected values and for providing a signal indicative of the suitability of the water conditions in said launch/recovery zone.
Apparatus for providing data representing a prediction of the suitability of water conditions for launch or recovery of a smaller craft from or to a host ship in a launch/recovery zone, which apparatus comprises:
- sensors for providing data representing one or more given parameters relating to the external environment of the host ship selected from:
- swell height
- swell direction
- swell period
- sensors for providing data representing one or more given parameters relating to operating conditions of the host ship, selected from:
- current ship heading
- current ship speed
- ship pitch angle
- ship roll angle
- a processor for receiving and processing said data from said sensors and for providing a signal indicative of the predicted suitability of the conditions in said launch/recovery zone.
A method for determining or predicting the suitability of the water conditions in a launch/recovery zone within or adjacent a host ship, which comprises monitoring and processing one or more parameters related to the external environment of the host ship selected from:
- swell height
- swell direction
- swell period
- and one or more parameters relative to the host ship selected from:
- current ship heading
- current ship speed
- ship pitch angle
- ship roll angle
- to obtain an indication of the suitability of the water conditions in said launch/recovery zone dependent upon said monitoring and comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.