-With one of power unit inoperative, the Rudder shall be capable of

turning  15 degrees port to 15 degrees starboard (and vice-versa)

within a time frame of 1 minutes with the vessel moving at half its
rated maximum speed or 7 knots (whicever is greater) at summer load
line.

-The Major power and teh control system are to be duplicated so that
if one of them fails, the other can easily subtsitute for them as standby.

-Emergency Power Supply: The steering gear system is to be provided

with additional power unit (hydraulic pump etc) connected to the
emergency power supply from emergency generator, which shall be
capable of turning the rudder from 15 degrees from one side to the
other side within 60 second with the vessel moving at a maximum
speed or knots, whicever is greater.

The rudder system consists of the following

● Rudder actuators
● Power units
● Other auxiliary equipment needed to apply turn the rudder by
applying torque
In hydraulic and electro-hydraulic system, hydraulic pressure is
developed by hydraulic pumps which are mainly driven by electric
motors (electro-hydraulic system) or sometimes through purely
mechanical means (hydraulic system)
Steeting Control System
● Steering Control System (SCS), also known as Autopilot, its
main function is to control the navigation direction of a vessel
and change the navigation direction through manual steering or
automatically controlled steering
 ● Its workking principle is to control the rotation of steering
engine according to the off-course signals generated by the
difference between the actual navigation direction and the target
course, so as to make vessel navigate towards the target course.

Autopilot
Most ships now operate with the autopilot but will continue to have
helsman monitoring the operation and taking corrective measures if
required. Ship operating with autopilot are designed around the ‘virtual
ship’ principle which is a computer-generated model vessel that
performs under set criteria.
Control of ship movement started with use of calestial observation-erlier
ship fearer stared with us of almanac, map, and sextant, to invention of
electrically driven gyroscope and magnetic compass unit 1911 when
gyrocompas-autopilot system which uses a control feedback was
invented.
The automatic steering of the vessel using this system is performed
using three methods:
● There is AUTO mode which is the primary mode where the
desired heading is maintained from data that is input from the
gyrocompass and the helsman input.
● The NAV mode performs automatic heading keeping using inputs
from an external management system to steer the vessel to pre-
determined waypoints.
● Track mode uses inputs from an external navigator. These input
are corrected for cross-track error by the autopilot to steer the
vessel to a waypoint aver designated ground track. To operate
effectively the autopilot only requires the following inputs,
positional data, rate of change of course data and cumulative build-
up of error data.

Principle of autopilot

Autopilot is an automatic device for steering a vessel maintaning,

its heading in a intended direction. Anyone can appreciate the
advantages of the autopilot-being free to carry out navigational
checks, trim adjustments or simply to relax and enjoy.

The autopilot utilizes a proportional rate system to steer the ship.

Th Proportional rate system is similiar to the highly accurate and
reliable system used on aircraft, missiles and space vehicle. The
proportional rate autopilot provides the necessary course correction
to the steering gears in proportion to the speed and amount the boat
moves off course.

With the removal of the dead band, the autopilot no longer

wanders within a dead band but now steers a prescribed course,
taking action within the presence of even a minute course error.
The amount of action depends on the course error detected, that is,
when the course error rate is small a very low helm correction rate
is applied

In the Auto modes, the heading information from an associated

sensor is continously compared with the set course (in the NAV
mode, the course to the waypoint set on the plotter connected).
With the ship on course, the two signals are equal.
If the ship goes off course, the difference between the primary
heading and the set course will change proportionally and there
will be an imbalance at the comparator, whose output will move up
or down depending on whether the course error is to the left or
right of the set course.

The rudder continues to move until a balanced condition is

obtained at the comparator, at which point the drive switches off

To set the rudder when the ship is off-course, the rudder signal is
generated at the rudder reference unit, then delivered the processor
unit

Turning On/Off

Press the (POWER/BRILL) key to turn the unit on before leaving

the port, because several minutes are necessary to allow for
stabilization of the heading data from the heading sensor. A beep
sounds and the equipment proceeds in the sequence show below,
displaying product information and startup test results.

The starup test checks the ROM,RAM, backed up data and

communication between the control unit and processor unit for
propper operation. Also, it checks the inputs heading signal and
rudder angle signal for the processor unit. If NG appears an
appropriate message appears on the screen. For any NG, try to
press any key to go to the next screen. However, the equipment
may not work properly. Contact your dealer for advice.