Auto Pilot

• It is one of the most advanced and technically

sophisticated navigational tool on the ship.
• Auto pilot is synchronized with the Gyro
compass to steer manually input courses with
reference to gyro heading. Any difference
between the two will cause an error and
correcting helm is applied to the rudder such
that heading is brought back to the same
value as set course.
 Details of Control units
In order to maintain the ship’s course accurately
as possible, the helm must be provided with
data regarding the ship’s movement relative to
the course to steer line. It is achieved by
electronic circuit with the help of the following
controls
 Proportional control
 Derivative control and
 Integral control
• Proportional control:
– The effect on steering when only proportional
control is applied causes the rudder to move by an
amount proportional to the off – course error
from the course to steer and the ship will oscillate
on either side of the required course line.
• Derivative control: the rudder is shifted by an
amount proportional to the rate of change of
ship’s deviation from the course. Any
deviation of course to port will cause
correcting rudder to be applied to starboard.
• The rate of change of course decreases with the
result that automatic rudder control decreases
and at point A, the rudder will return to midship
position as shown in fig above (previous slide).
The ship will now make good a course, which is
parallel to the required course and will continue
to do so.
• The combined effect of both proportional and
derivative control produces a more satisfactory
return as shown in next slide.
• Integral control there are certain errors due to design
parameters of the ship like shape of the hull, bow
going to port when ship is making headway due to
transverse thrust etc., which have to be corrected.
Data signals are produced by continuously sensing
heading error over a period of time and applying an
appropriate degree of permanent helm is used for this
purpose. The rudder used to correct the course will
now be about this permanent helm instead of the
actual midship i.e permanent helm now acts as
midship.
• PID Control: This is the combined action of
Proportional, Derivative and Integral controls. The
deviation signal has to be generated under the
following conditions:
I. when the ship deviates from the set course
and
– When the set course is changed
In both cases the ship’s heading on compass and set course
signals are fed to the Control unit. This unit calculates the
rudder angle on the basis of PID Control and the set values
of rudder control.
 Block Diagram Auto Pilot
• Course to be steered is selected by the course
selector knob while the present heading of the ship is
indicated on the gyro.
• The output of gyro coupled to the comparator in the
control unit along with the input signal from the
manual course setting control.
• Any difference between the two signals causes an
output error signal whose magnitude is proportional
to the difference the two signals and hence the
comparator is also referred to as proportional control.
• In addition to the proportional control, the
control unit also consists of derivatives and
integral controls, which analyses the signals
from the gyro and the course selector.
• A summing amplifier is used to obtain a
resultant error signal from these three controls.
• This error is fed to the error amplifier, which
also gets feedback signal from rudder,
consisting of rudder position and its movement.
• The output of the error amplifier is fed via
telemotors to the steering gear unit and in turn
operates the rudder.
• Telemotor has two units i.e. transmitter and
receiver which are situated on the bridge and
steering gear compartment respectively.
• There will be no output from the control unit when
the difference between the two signals is zero and
hence no movement of the rudder results.
 Control Unit
• In the control unit, the Proportional Control
determines the rudder angle to be used, the
Derivative control takes care of the counter helm to
be used and the Integral control considers the effects
of ship’s parameters. Additionally there is a Filter
system for action of wind and waves.
• The output of control unit is given to the Error
Amplifier, which also gets a feed back from rudder. On
the basis of these input the error Amplifier works out
the order to be given to rudder via Telemotor system.
• Filters: There are filters incorporated to avoid
short and frequent use of rudder because of wind
and waves effects on steering in small amount.
Also the system is not overloaded. Optional
setting of these filters can be done. The rudder is
not used to correct the small and frequent
deviations of courses, but rudder comes in to
operational only for large deviations of course.
This way system is protected and optimal steering
can be achieved.
 Controls on the Panel
• Course selector knob: This is the primary control of the
auto pilot system and course to be steered is selected
with this knob.
• Rudder control: This control determines the amount of
rudder to be used to correct the slightest amount of
deviation from the set course. The higher the setting, the
larger the rudder angle used to correct a course deviation
and this may result in over correcting. Contrarily if the
setting is low, less rudder is used to correct a course
deviation and ship will take a long to return to the set
course. Hence the setting has to be optimum.
• Counter rudder: The control determines the amount of
counter action by the rudder to be used to steady the
ship on the set course keeping the overshoot to a
minimum. Two low a setting will allow the ship to
overshoot and too high a setting will bring the ship back
to the set course slowly. Hence optimum setting is
required.
• Generally the rudder and counter rudder work in
tandem and their setting will depend on each other, but
the rudder must be set first and then the counter
rudder must be set optimally.
• Yaw: The setting of yaw control depends on the
wind and weather condition and their effects on
the course keeping ability of the ship. In bad
weather with strong wind and rough sea, a
higher value should be selected while in calm
weather a low value is preferred.
• Speed: input of speed is through log, in case not
working, manual speed can be fed. The speed
of ship determines effectiveness of the rudder.
• Rudder limit: This control specifies the
maximum amount of rudder to be used, when
correcting the ship’s head or when altering a
course on auto pilot itself.
• Off course alarm: This alarm is activated if the
ship deviates from the set course by a pre -
decided limit, which can be fed to the
equipment.
• Synchronization control: This control temporarily
disconnects the gyro repeater from the main gyro.
This is usually not required to be done except when
the gyro is switched off and restarted or for
exceptional reasons the repeater has drifted off.
• Auto/follow up/Non follow up: This switch allows
the navigator to choose between automatic
steering or manual steering and in case of manual
steering failure Non Follow Up system of steering
may be chosen.
 Adaptive Steering System
• This is an advanced version of the PID Control,
which adapts to the steering capabilities of the
ship as well as the wind and weather conditions.
• The automatic processing unit in the Adaptive
mode and control algorithm is divided into
three units
– Estimation unit
– Optimal control unit and
– Adaptive kalman filter.
• Estimation Unit: the ship’s hull dynamics
characteristics changes due to the load
condition, speed of the ship, depth of water,
wind and waves etc. Hence in PID autopilot,
the controls have to be re-adjusted to get
optimum steering, whereas in adaptive
autopilot, the estimation algorithm is
incorporated so that the optimum steering is
obtained without readjusting controls.
• The algorithm is based on Model Reference
Adaptive Control System (MRACS), which gives
desirable specifications for the control system
based on the mathematical model and the
gain adjustment to make the output of control
system equal to the mathematical model. It
also estimates the ship’s hull dynamic
characteristics.
• Optimal Control Unit: consists of the optimal gain
calculation unit and the order rudder angle calculation
unit. The optimal gain calculation unit calculates the
optimal gain based on the estimated results of the hull
dynamics characteristics calculated by MRACS (model
reference adaptive control system), the ships speed and
the estimation unit functions.
• The order rudder angle calculation unit calculates the
optimal angle to be ordered based on the estimated
course deviation and estimated rate of turn output from
the adaptive Kalman unit.
• Auto-Adaptive Steering System: has the
following modes
– Course keeping mode and
– Course changing mode.
• Course keeping mode: there is open sea mode in which
economic is preferred for course keeping with least use
of rudder, even if permitting a little meandering such as
sailing in open seas and the Confined Mode in which
the course keeping accuracy of maintaining the ship on
the course line is preferred even if by using large rudder
angles.
• The optimal gain calculation unit calculates each
optimal gain for the open sea and confined mode and
switching between them can be done with the help of
Course Keeping Knob on the Auto control unit
• Course change mode: by ordering course changing in the
Auto- Adaptive steering system, the mode is automatically
moved to the Course Changing Mode. The MRACS (model
reference adoptive control system) is used in the course
changing control algorithm and the ideal course changing,
matched with own ship’s dynamic characteristics, can be
performed. The important feature of course changing with
the autopilot is that the course changing is achieved with
a constant rate of turn technique using minimum rudder
angle and thereby the speed reduction can also be kept to
a minimum, unlike conventional autopilot.
• Kalman filter: In open sea the ship is subjected to wind
and weather effects, which causes the ship to yaw.
Generally in calm sea this results in small deviation of
course where as in rough seas larger deviations of course
are experienced. For small deviation repeated use of
rudder is not recommended and makes the steering
system inefficient, in addition to overloading the system.
In conventional autopilot the linear filters and weather
adjustments are provided to prevent such occurrences.
• In adaptive autopilot a Kalman Filters is used by which
true and correct weather adjustment are possible.
Conception of Kalman Filter
• The kalman filter has a model of hull (model
ship), and the same rudder angles as that of
actual ship are used as input to this model
ship. The actual ship’s hull receives various
external disturbances together with a rudder
angle signals and sails with a strong yaw. No
external disturbances is input to the model
ship in the Kalman Filter and the model ship
always takes motion of sailing in calm sea.
• The Kalman filter seeks for the most probable
ship’s motion by comparing and correcting with
these two signals successively. As a result the
large deviations, which are induced by waves
and cannot be suppressed by the steering,
scarcely appear in the output of Kalman Filter.
• The external disturbance setting should be
changed according to sea state. In this system
external disturbances are automatically set .
• Precautions:
– Change over from automatic to manual steering or vice
versa is possible at any rudder angle, it is good practice
to change from automatic to manual and vice versa
when the rudder is midship except in case of
emergencies when it may be changed over at any angle.
– The gyro repeater is synchronized with master repeater
– The setting of the control are optimum and adjust if
required
– The off course alarm and try out hand and emergency
steering.
– It should not be used in narrow channel
– At slow speed
– During manoeuring or in pilotage water
– In areas of heavy traffic
– During heavy weather conditions
– While carrying large alteration of course
– In areas of poor visibility.
Thank You
 Concept of Kalman filter in adoptive
steering system of ships
• Concept of Kalman filter in adoptive steering system
of ships
The Kalman filter is a mathematical algorithm used
to estimate the state of a system based on a series
of measurements. In the context of adoptive steering
systems for ships, the Kalman filter can be used to
estimate the ship's position, velocity, and other
relevant parameters based on sensor measurements
such as GPS, radar, and inertial measurement units.
• The adoptive steering system of a ship uses
this estimated state information to make real-
time adjustments to the ship's steering in order
to maintain a desired course and speed. The
Kalman filter helps to improve the accuracy
and reliability of the estimated state information
by taking into account the uncertainties and
noise in the sensor measurements.

.
• By continuously updating the estimated state
of the ship using the Kalman filter, the adoptive
steering system can make more precise and
responsive steering adjustments, leading to
improved overall performance, efficiency, and
safety of the ship. This is particularly important
in challenging conditions such as rough seas,
strong currents, or crowded waterways, where
accurate and adaptive steering is crucial for
safe navigation.