BRIDGE EQUIPMENT - AUTOPLIOT

AUTOPILOT

Description & Principle of Operation

The autopilot is equipment used to maintain the ship’s set course electronically and electrically
for a long period of time when alteration of course is not required.

This is achieved by comparing the course to steer with the ship’s heading obtained by gyro or
magnetic compasses. Any difference between the two will cause an error signal voltage to be
created and accordingly correcting helm will be applied to the rudder to bring the ship back to
the set course.

The error signal is fed to the error amplifier which also gets feedback signals from the rudder
regarding the rudder’s current position and it’s movement. The output of the error amplifier is
fed via telemotors to the steering gear unit which in turn operates the rudder. The telemotor has
two units- transmitter (situated on the bridge) and receiver (in the steering compartment).

When the difference between the two signals, i.e., the course to steer and present gyro (or
magnetic) course, is nil, there will be no output from the control unit and hence no movement of
the rudder.

The Autopilot Control Unit – The PID Control Unit

In order to maintain the ship’s course accurately, the deviation signal has to be generated under
the following conditions:

a) When the set course is changed (by the navigator)

b) When the ship deviates from the set course (due to external factors)

For this purpose, the helm must be provided with data regarding the ship’s movement relative to
the course to steer line.

This is achieved by electronic circuits with the help of the following:

 Proportional control
 Derivative control
 Integral control

Proportional Control

The effect on steering, when only the proportional control is applied, causes the rudder to move
by an amount proportional to the off-course error from the course to steer.

When the ship has gone off-course to port, an error occurs and helm, proportional to the
deviation and hence error signal, is used to bring her back to the set course. As the ship starts
to return to the set course, the helm is gradually eased and finally removed when the ship is
back on the set course. The rudder will be amidships when the ship reaches its set course and
then the heading overshoots resulting in the vessel to go more to starboard. Correcting helm is
now applied causing the ship to return to port and back to the original course. The vessel thus
keeps on oscillating to port and starboard of the course line.

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Derivative Control
In derivative control, the rudder is shifted by an amount proportional to the rate of change of
the ship’s deviation from the course. Any deviation of course to port will cause correcting
rudder to be applied to starboard.

As the rate of change of course decreases, the automatic rudder control decreases and at a
point X, the rudder will return to midships before the vessel reaches its set course.
The ship will now make good a course parallel to the required course.

Integral Control
Certain errors due to the design of the ship (bow going to port due to transverse thrust, shape of
the hull, current draft, etc.) have an impact on the steering capabilities of the ship and have to
be corrected for effective overall steering performance.

In order to achieve this, signals are produced by sensing the heading error over a period of time
and applying an appropriate degree of permanent helm. The rudder used to correct the course
will now be about this permanent helm. That is, the permanent helm will now act as midships.
Additionally, there are various controls provided on the autopilot system along with a filter
system for the action of the winds and waves which supply more data to the autopilot which
optimizes the performance of integral control.

The output of these three controls is combined and the net resultant thus obtained drives the
rudder maintaining the ship on the set course. This type of auto pilot is referred to as PID auto
pilot.

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Controls on the Panel

 Course selector knob – course to be steered is selected by this knob.

 Permanent helm – Used when the ship is being driven off-course by cross winds.
Rudder angle should be just enough to off-set the drift.

 Speed – Speed input usually given from the log or manually.

Speed of the ship determines the effectiveness of the rudder; lower the speed, less effective
the rudder and vice-versa.

 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 may result in over correcting.
Lesser the setting, lesser the rudder angle used and longer the time taken by the ship to
return to the set course. Hence the setting has to be optimum so that the ship quickly
returns to the set course with minimum overshoot.

 Counter rudder – This 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 the minimum.
Too low a setting will allow the ship to overshoot and too high will bring the ship back to
set course slowly. Hence optimum setting is desired.

 Yaw – This setting depends on wind and weather conditions. In bad weather a higher
value should be selected; in calm waters a low value is preferred.

 Rudder limit – This setting specifies the maximum amount of rudder to be used when
correcting the ship’s head or when altering course on autopilot. That is, if a setting of 10°
is applied for rudder limit, when altering course the rudder will move to a maximum of
10°. This limit can be varied according to the requirements of the navigator.

 Off-course alarm – This alarm is activated when the ship deviates from the set course
by more than the preset value fed into the equipment. This alarm also serves as a
warning if the autopilot system fails and the ship deviates from her set course by more
than the preset value. Again, the setting is dependant on weather. Higher in rough seas
and lower in calmer waters.

 Synchronization control – This control temporarily disconnects the gyro repeater from
the main gyro so that the heading of the repeater can be synchronized with the master
compass.

 Auto/Follow-up/Non follow-up – This switch allows the navigator to switch between

various steering modes.

 Dimmer – As the name stands used for illuminating the panel according to ones’
requirements.

Auto 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 ship’s hull dynamic characteristics keep changing with the change in the load condition,
speed, depth of water, wind and weather conditions etc. In the PID autopilot, the controls
have to be re-adjusted to get the optimum steering but in the adaptive autopilot, the

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estimation algorithm is incorporated so that the optimum steering is obtained without re-
adjusting the controls

Precautions to exercise when using Autopilot

Check the following frequently:
 Master and Gyro compasses are synchronized
 Try out hand steering and emergency steering
 Optimum settings of controls
 Try off-course alarm
 Maintenance be carried out as per the manual

The ship should not be on autopilot mode under the following situations:
 In narrow channels
 At slow speeds
 In areas of heavy traffic
 In rough weather conditions
 When vessel is under pilotage
 In poor visibility

The autopilot should not be used for following:

 For large alteration of course (unless the autopilot is designed for the purpose)
 Never for collision avoidance

Note:
Modern ships are being fitted with rate of turn indicators and large alteration of courses can
be made on autopilot by feeding a constant ROT or a constant radius turn technique.
.