Drone-Assisted Mooring Position Detection for Crowded Harbors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Marine vessels face challenges in finding suitable mooring positions at crowded harbors or ports, due to the complexity of navigating between other vessels of varying sizes.
Innovation Solution
An unmanned aircraft system equipped with an image capturing unit and a controller that transmits wireless signals to a marine vessel's control system, providing real-time data on suitable mooring positions by scanning the area and determining dimensions and geographical coordinates of potential docking areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the marine vessel enters a crowded harbor to find a mooring position, then the vessel can access potential docking locations, but the time and stress required to navigate between other vessels increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an aerial dimension by deploying an unmanned aircraft to capture images of the harbor from above. This top-down perspective transforms the complex 3D navigation problem into a 2D planar problem that can be easily analyzed by the image processing system, allowing rapid identification of suitable mooring positions without the vessel needing to manually navigate through crowded areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary scanning and analysis of the harbor environment before the vessel enters. The unmanned aircraft captures images and the processor identifies suitable mooring positions in advance, providing the vessel with pre-processes navigation information. This allows the vessel to proceed directly to identified locations rather than searching while in the crowded harbor.
2Reliability
If the marine vessel manually searches for a mooring position in a crowded harbor, then the vessel can assess suitability, but the operator experiences increased stress and time consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical assessment process with an automated optical and computational system. The unmanned aircraft's camera captures images, and the onboard processor automatically analyzes the images to determine mooring position suitability based on predefined criteria. This substitution eliminates the need for time-consuming manual assessment while maintaining or improving accuracy through consistent application of assessment rules.
3Productivity
If the marine vessel enters a crowded harbor to dock, then the vessel can reach docking areas, but the risk of stressful situations and navigation conflicts increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system identifies and communicates suitable mooring positions to the vessel before it enters the crowded harbor area. This preliminary identification allows the vessel to navigate directly to pre-selected locations with minimal interaction with other vessels, thereby maintaining docking efficiency while avoiding the stressful and conflict-prone environment of crowded harbor areas.
Data Source
AI summary
An unmanned aircraft system of an unmanned aircraft, a control system arranged on a marine vessel, as well as a method for controlling a navigation system of a marine vessel is described. This may enable improved operation of the marine vessel in docking situations at a mooring position.