Watercraft, in particular tugboat
AssigneeVoith Patent GmbH
InventorsDIRK JUERGENS, MICHAEL PALM, SEBASTIAN SINGER
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tugboat for assisting cargo vessels has the following features: at least one propelling unit and a tow line for establishing a pulling connection between the cargo vessel and the tugboat. A measuring device measures the bollard pull and a central processing unit records the measurement result and forms a control command relating to the propelling force and/or the propelling direction for propelling purposes.
Claims21
1-17. (canceled)
A tugboat for assisting a cargo vessel, comprising:
- at least one drive and a control device controlling said at least one drive;
- at least one tow line for establishing a pulling connection between the cargo vessel and the tugboat;
- at least one detecting device for detecting at least one variable directly or indirectly characterizing a bollard pull between the cargo vessel and the tugboat, said at least one detecting device including a device for detecting a variable describing a change of an ambient condition of the tugboat causing the bollard pull;
- a controller connected to receive from said at least one detecting device the at least one variable characterizing the bollard pull, said controller being configured to form at least one control variable for activating said control device of said at least one drive for influencing one or both of a thrust force or a thrust direction of the tugboat;
- and
- said controller including an analyzer configured to derive a theoretical changing behavior of an actual value of the bollard pull over time from variables describing a motion of the tugboat and/or variables describing the ambient condition of the tugboat under the influence of said variables and to provide the theoretical changing behavior of the actual value of the bollard pull over time to a comparison between a target value and an actual value.
A method for closed-loop control of a bollard pull between a cargo vessel and a tugboat, wherein the tugboat has at least one drive, a tow line for establishing a pulling connection to the cargo vessel and a controller or closed-loop controller, the method comprising:
- in a first control concept, detecting an actual value of a variable at least indirectly characterizing the bollard pull in the pulling connection and, if the actual value exceeds and/or deviates from a predefined target value, activating the at least one drive of the tugboat for influencing one or both of a thrust force or a thrust direction of the tugboat;
- and
- in a second control concept, detecting the actual value of the variable at least indirectly characterizing the bollard pull in the pulling connection and determining a change of the actual value occurring with a time lag, and, if the actual value deviates from the predefined target value, activating the at least one drive for influencing one or both of the thrust force or the thrust direction of the tugboat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.