Vehicle control system for watercraft using a microchip based processor and control surfaces

Abstract

The invention is a vehicle control system which is envisaged to be used in high speed planing watercraft which has a means of control about three axes where the invention controls the said watercraft about at least two axes by actuating control surfaces. The invention uses a microchip based processor ( 1 ) to actuate control surfaces based on input from various sensors ( 3 ). The invention also uses a three dimension time of flight imaging subsystem ( 8 ) to read information of the oceanic wave conditions.

1 . A vehicle control system for controlling a planing watercraft using at least one microchip based processor ( 1 ), at least one actuator ( 2 ) and at least one sensor ( 3 ) where there are means to actively control the said planing watercraft about three axes and the said at least one microchip based processor ( 1 ) controls the said watercraft about at least two axes via the said at least one actuator ( 2 ) based on input the said at least one microchip based processor ( 1 ) receives from the at least one sensor ( 3 ). 
     
     
         2 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 1  where the said watercraft has at least three control surfaces where the said at least one microchip based processor ( 1 ) actively controls at least two control surfaces via the said at least one actuator ( 2 ). 
     
     
         3 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where the said watercraft is also able to operate in ground effect. 
     
     
         4 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where at least one of the said at least one microchip based processor ( 1 ) is a digital signal processor. 
     
     
         5 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where at least one of the said at least one microchip based processor ( 1 ) is a field-programmable gate array. 
     
     
         6 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where the said at least one microchip based processor ( 1 ) is an application-specific integrated circuit. 
     
     
         7 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where there is at least one accelerometer ( 6 ) present. 
     
     
         8 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where there is at least one gyroscope ( 7 ) sensor present. 
     
     
         9 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where there is at least one sensor ( 9 ) able to provide information on distance from an object detected by the said sensor to the said watercraft. 
     
     
         10 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 2  where there is at least one optical sensor ( 9 ). 
     
     
         11 . A vehicle control system as in  claim 9  where there is at least one subsystem ( 8 ) able to provide three dimensional imaging information to the said at least one microchip based processor.