A marine vessel maneuvering support system includes a steering apparatus including a wheel portion supported rotatably with respect to a hull, mode switches provided on the wheel portion and operable to execute lateral thrust generation modes to generate a thrust that moves the hull in a lateral direction, paddles provided on the steering apparatus and operable to cause a thrust to be applied to the hull in a front-rear direction, and a controller configured or programmed to control at least two propulsion devices and execute the lateral thrust generation modes in accordance with instructions from the mode switches. The controller is configured or programmed to control at least one propulsion device of the at least two propulsion devices to generate or change the thrust in the front-rear direction acting on the hull in response to operations of the paddles when the lateral thrust generation mode is being executed.

An unmanned device for a marine environment comprises a location sensor configured to gather location data corresponding to the unmanned device; at least one propulsion system; a transmitter and memory including computer program code. The computer program code is configured to, when executed, cause the processor to cause the propulsion system to propel the unmanned device in a pattern along the body of water, cause the sonar transducer to emit the one or more sonar beams into the body of water, receive sonar return data corresponding to sonar returns, and generate a sonar image corresponding to the sonar return data. Further, the computer program code is configured to cause the processor to detect an object within the sonar image, assign a score to the object indicating the likelihood that the object is a desired object type, and send an alert to the remote electronics device upon assignment of the score.

A system and method for transporting cargo and containers across a body of water having at least one mothership vessel designed to carry at least one deployable and retrievable vessels within a hull portion of the at least one mothership vessel. The mothership vessel is designed to partially submerge its hull to flood its well deck wherein the plurality of deployable and retrievable vessels may be deployed or retrieved, the deployable and retrievable vessels allowed to float when the well-deck of the mothership vessel is flooded. At least one mathematical model is used to find a solution for given routes along one or more legs between ports, the mothership vessel, and the deployable and releasable vessels, the route substantially to manage supply chain optimization of the cargo carried on the mothership vessel and the costs and pace of travel. Machine learning may aid in calculations.

An operating command indicating a requested vessel direction and plotting a course represented by a reference line for the requested vessel direction from an initial position is registered. It is then monitored if the vessel has deviated from the reference line and if a deviation from the reference line is detected, then a value for current vessel speed is detected. The detected vessel speed value is compared to a predetermined reference speed value to determine if the current vessel speed value is within a high speed interval or a low speed interval relative to the reference speed value. Depending on the determined speed interval the vessel is controlled according a low speed control strategy; or a high speed control strategy in order to move the vessel from a current vessel heading to the reference line and the requested vessel direction.

A watercraft maneuvering control apparatus for controlling a propulsion device of a watercraft includes an obstacle sensor to detect an obstacle around the watercraft, a pattern sailing commander operated by a user to provide a command to sail the watercraft in a sailing pattern, and a controller configured or programmed to control the propulsion device. The controller is configured or programmed to function as a pattern sailing controller to control the propulsion device to sail the watercraft in the sailing pattern, an expected sailing water area computer to compute an expected sailing water area when the watercraft is sailed in the sailing pattern, and a pattern sailing intervener to suspend or cancel the pattern sailing of the watercraft when the obstacle sensor detects an obstacle interfering with the expected sailing water area.

A method for refining global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data for a watercraft is provided. The method includes receiving, from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) mounted to the watercraft, the GNSS data. The method also includes receiving radar data from a radar mounted to the watercraft, creating adjusted data using at least the radar data and the GNSS data, and applying the adjusted data by taking an action. The action comprises at least one of performing a docking operation with the adjusted data, automatically navigating the watercraft using the adjusted data, causing presentation of an alert or other indication regarding the adjusted data, or updating a chart to form an updated chart and causing presentation of the updated chart on a display.

Embodiments of the invention include systems and methods for range estimation in autonomous maritime vehicles through use of an image processing model. The model comprises a neural network that informs the vehicle as to the ranges of real-world objects based on a diversified set of synthetic and real-world training data. During training, the model estimates the ranges of objects and/or subcomponents extracted from the training data and compares the estimated ranges with the corresponding ground truths. The system then uses the results of the comparisons to update the weights and biases in the neural network and improve the accuracy and performance of the image processing model deployed to the vehicle.

A system and method for providing accurate trim and list angles of a ship through an array of sensors incorporating real-time kinematics and inertial measurement units. The software application would create a D model of the localized sensor data for detailed ship characteristics. Artificial intelligence will process all the sensor data through a large database of route data, weather conditions, and past performances to determine the optimum ballast levels to set the trim/list angles for maximum fuel efficiency. Each trip will provide detailed course information for continual improvement.

Systems and method for providing navigational control of a watercraft are provided herein. The system comprises a display, processor and memory. The memory including computer program code is configured to cause presentation of a chart on the display including at least a portion of the body of water. The system further receives user input indicating initiation of a drift protocol, including indication of a boundary area for which the watercraft will drift through, and causes presentation of the boundary area on the chart. The system determines an instance when the watercraft drifts outside of the boundary area and provides an alert when the watercraft exits or nears the boundary area. The system determines a starting position corresponding to the boundary area and engages an autopilot to cause the watercraft to navigate to the starting position or provides instructions to enable the user to navigate the watercraft to the starting position.

Remote-control units used for docking a marine vessel include both a radio transceiver for communicating with a helm receiver to which control signals for the various vessel systems can be sent, and a WiFi transceiver that can be used to remotely access and adjust the operational profiles stored in the remote control unit. Each of the profiles causes the remote control unit to control one or more vessel systems by ramping up their output over an initial time duration to a maximum profile setting which is a proportion of the maximum output capability of the vessel system.