Remote control system for a vehicle

A method for remotely controlling a watercraft, said method comprising:

• inputting an operator control command indicative of a desired direction of movement into a remote control device;
• comparing orientation of the remote control device to an environmental reference at the time of input of the operator control command;
• determining an orientation of the watercraft relative to the environmental reference at the time of input of the operator control command;
• and
• comparing the orientation of the remote control device with the orientation of the watercraft, and based on said comparison, controlling movement of the watercraft in the operator input desired direction.

A vehicle remote control system having a main axis (1), comprising:

• a primary heading sensor attached to the vehicle that generates a primary reference heading;
• a remote control steering manipulator comprising a secondary heading sensor and a steering input and that generates a user desired direction of travel heading;
• and
• a steering computer that receives the primary reference heading from the primary heading sensor and the user desired direction of travel heading from the remote control steering manipulator, wherein the computer compares the primary reference heading and the desired direction of travel heading, thereby determining a desired heading regardless of the orientation of the remote control steering manipulator with respect to the vehicle main axis.

A method for remote controlling a vehicle heading, comprising:

• generating a vehicle primary heading from a heading sensor fixed to the vehicle;
• generating a remote control secondary heading from a heading sensor in a remote control;
• generating user steering input information from the remote control;
• and
• comparing the secondary heading and user steering input information with the primary heading to control the vehicle heading in response to the user input while correcting for changes between the primary heading and the secondary heading.