A first sensor detects first environment information indicating a shape of a shore arrival location and a positional relationship between the shore arrival location and a boat body. A second sensor, different from the first sensor, detects second environment information indicating the shape of the shore arrival location and the positional relationship between the shore arrival location and the boat body. A controller is communicatively connected to the first sensor and the second sensor. When the distance from the boat body to the shore arrival location is greater than a predetermined distance threshold, the controller generates, based on the first environment information, an instruction signal to control a propulsion device to as to cause the boat body to arrive at the shore arrival location. When the distance from the boat body to the shore arrival location is equal to or less than the distance threshold, the controller generates an instruction signal based on the second environment information.

A towed vessel suitable for containing and transporting various liquids is disclosed. The vessel further comprises various features useful in the transportation, navigation, and storage of the towable vessel, both when in use for transporting fluids and when transported in an emptied state. Such features include navigational and positioning devices and methods, power supply devices and methods, and means for filling, inflating, emptying, and deflating a non-rigid, towed vessel. Aspects of embodiments of the present invention further include features useful for purifying or preserving the purity of the fluid to be transported.

Apparatuses and methods are provided herein for performing marine auto-ranging. Marine auto-ranging may include the functionality to determine current conditions associated with a watercraft (e.g., remaining fuel, location, speed, wind, current, etc.) and determine a range for the watercraft and, in turn, possible destinations for the watercraft that are within range on a map. A marine electronic device may be configured to display a map and overlay the map with an indication of how far a watercraft could travel based on such current conditions, such as a highlighted or shaded geographical area around a current location of the watercraft on the map.

The present invention provides an auxiliary berthing method and system for a vessel. In the berthing method, by a solar blind ultraviolet imaging method, a position and an attitude of a vessel relative to a shoreline of a port berth during berthing are calculated by at least two solar blind ultraviolet imaging modules according to light signals received by a solar blind ultraviolet light source array arranged in advance on the shore. Further, when more than three solar blind ultraviolet imaging modules are used, in the method and device of the present invention, a normalized correlation algorithm and a data fusion algorithm are used to improve the accuracy of the position and attitude data of the vessel.

A ship docking system and a ship docking method are provided. The ship docking system includes a computing device, an unmanned aerial vehicle communicating wirelessly with the computing device and pre-docked on a charging platform, and a display device communicating wirelessly with the computing device. When the computing device determines that the ship is performing a port entry operation, the computing device controls the unmanned aerial vehicle to move to a preset height above the ship and to obtain a panoramic image of the ship. The unmanned aerial vehicle transmits the panoramic image to the computing device, so that the computing device analyzes the panoramic image to perform a collision prediction of the ship, and transmits a collision prediction result to the display device.

A LiDAR included in this automatic docking device measures the distance to a surrounding object at each predetermined angle by irradiating the object with light and receiving the light reflected by the object. When a ship offshore is instructed to perform automatic docking, the ship navigates to some extent by automatic navigation based on satellite positioning, and is then switched to automatic navigation based on the LiDAR. Before switching to the automatic navigation based on the LiDAR, the LiDAR performs preparatory measurement for measuring the distance to an object around a docking position. In this preparatory measurement, a control unit controls to change, for example, the orientation of the ship such that light emitted from the LiDAR can be reflected by the object around the docking position and can be received by the LiDAR.

A container ship configured for stowing a plurality of shipping containers above the open deck. The container ship comprises at least one digital video camera arranged to capture a field of view forward of the forward of bow of the container ship, a bridge provided with instruments for direction control, instruments for engine control, and with at least one display screen coupled to the at least one digital video camera for real time reproduction of images captured by the digital video camera.

Apparatuses and methods are provided herein for performing marine auto-ranging. Marine auto-ranging may include the functionality to determine current conditions associated with a watercraft (e.g., remaining fuel, location, speed, wind, current, etc.) and determine a range for the watercraft and, in turn, possible destinations for the watercraft that are within range on a map. A marine electronic device may be configured to display a map and overlay the map with an indication of how far a watercraft could travel based on such current conditions, such as a highlighted or shaded geographical area around a current location of the watercraft on the map.

An unmanned seismic vessel system can include a hull system configured to provide buoyancy and a storage apparatus configured for storing one or more seismic nodes, each seismic node having at least one seismic sensor configured to acquire seismic data. A deployment system can be configured for deploying the seismic nodes from the storage apparatus to the water column, where the seismic data are responsive to a seismic wavefield, with a controller configured to operate the deployment system so that the seismic nodes are automatically deployed in a seismic array.

The present invention comprises: a surface repeater vehicle 200 having a repeater vehicle propulsion means 38 and a repeater vehicle position measurement means 40; an underwater vehicle 100 having a vehicle position estimation means 20; an information transmission line 24 for connecting between the surface repeater vehicle 200 and the underwater vehicle 100, and transmitting acquired information including image information obtained by the underwater vehicle 100; a position setting means 54 for setting a target latitude and target longitude for the surface repeater vehicle 200 and the underwater vehicle 100; and a control means 12, 32 for controlling the surface repeater vehicle 200 and the underwater vehicle 100, and is configured such that, on the basis of the target latitude and target longitude that have been set and an on-water position measured by the repeater vehicle position measurement means 40, the repeater vehicle propulsion means 38 is driven, the position of the surface repeater vehicle 200 is controlled by the control means 12, 32, and on the basis of the target latitude and target longitude that have been set and an underwater position estimated by the vehicle position estimation means 20, the position of the underwater vehicle 100 is controlled by the control means 12, 32, thereby causing the underwater vehicle 100 and the surface repeater vehicle 200 to travel side-by-side while maintaining a vertical positional relationship on the water surface and under water until reaching the target latitude and target longitude.