FIELD

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for steering a marine vessel, including systems and methods for controlling yaw, roll, and pitch of a marine vessel.

BACKGROUND

Each of the following patents is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,237 discloses a trim tab control system in which four buttons or switches are provided for the marine operator in which the operator can select to raise the bow, raise the stern, raise the port side of the boat, or raise the stern side of the boat in relative terms, and the system will automatically position the trim tabs to most efficiently achieve the operator's demanded change in position of the marine vessel.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,583,728 discloses a trim tab monitoring circuit which receives a signal that is representative of a voltage potential across a stator winding of a motor which is attached to the trim tab. This signal is passed through a high pass filter to remove the DC component of the signal, amplified, and passed through a low pass filter to remove certain high frequencies components of the signal. A zero crossing detector is used to discern individual pulses which are then received by a counter that provides a single output pulse for a predetermined number of input pulses. The series of output pulses from the counter are conditioned and, in conjunction with a direction sensor, provided to an up/down counter controller that provides digital signals to a signal output circuit. The signal output circuit provides a DC voltage output to a display and the DC output voltage is representative of the position of the trim tab.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,581 discloses a marine drive and a marine vessel and drive combination having a trim tab with a forward end pivotally mounted to a marine propulsion device.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,278,740 discloses a system for controlling an attitude of a marine vessel having first and second trim tabs that includes a controller having vessel roll and pitch control sections. The pitch control section compares an actual vessel pitch angle to a predetermined desired vessel pitch angle and outputs a deployment setpoint that is calculated to achieve the desired pitch angle. The roll control section compares an actual vessel roll angle to a predetermined desired vessel roll angle, and outputs a desired differential between the first and second deployments that is calculated to maintain the vessel at the desired vessel roll angle. When the controller determines that the magnitude of a requested vessel turn is greater than a first predetermined threshold, the controller decreases the desired differential between the first and second deployments, and accounts for the decreased desired differential deployment in its calculation of the first and second deployments.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,598,160 discloses a system and method for controlling a trim device that positions a trimmable marine apparatus with respect to a marine vessel. The trim system is operated in an automatic mode, in which a controller sends signals to actuate the trim device automatically as a function of vessel or engine speed, or a manual mode, in which the controller sends signals to actuate the trim device in response to commands from an operator input device. An operating speed of the propulsion system is determined. When the operating speed has crossed a given operating speed threshold, the trim system is subsequently operated in the automatic or manual mode depending on whether the operating speed increased or decreased as it crossed the operating speed threshold and whether the trim system was operating in the automatic or manual mode as the operating speed crossed the operating speed threshold.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,733,645 discloses a system and method for controlling handling of a marine vessel having a steerable component that is steerable to a plurality of positions to vary a direction of movement of the vessel. A controller is communicatively connected to an actuator of the steerable component and a user input device provides to the controller an operator-initiated steering command to steer the steerable component to one of the plurality of positions. A sensor provides to the controller an indication of an undesired course change of the marine vessel. The controller has a vessel direction control section that outputs a command to the actuator to change a position of the steerable component from the one of the plurality of positions so as to automatically counteract the undesired course change. The vessel direction control section is active only when the operator-initiated steering command is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In one embodiment, a steering system on a marine vessel includes at least one propulsion device configured to propel the marine vessel, a steering actuator that rotates the at least one propulsion device to effectuate steering, at least one trim device coupled to the marine vessel and moveable to adjust a running angle thereof, and at least one trim actuator configured to move the trim device so as to effectuate adjustment of the running angle. A control system is configured to determine a desired roll angle and at least one of a desired turn rate and a desired turn angle for the marine vessel based on a steering instructions. In various embodiments, the steering instruction may be an operator input at a steering input device, such as a steering wheel, or may be an output by an autonomous navigation system. The control system then controls the steering actuator to the rotate the at least one propulsion device based on the desired turn rate and/or the desired turn angle, and to control the trim actuator to move the at least one trim device based on the desired roll angle so as to effectuate the steering instruction.

In one embodiment, a method of controlling steering of a marine vessel includes receiving a steering output from an operator-controlled steering input device and then determining a desired turn rate for the marine vessel and a desired roll angle for the marine vessel based on the steering input. A steering angle of at least one propulsion device is then controlled based on the desired turn rate and a trim deployment of each of a pair of trim tabs is also controlled based on the desired roll angle so as to steer the marine vessel according to the steering input.

Another embodiment of a method of controlling the marine vessel includes calculating a desired roll angle for a marine vessel based on the desired turn, and then determining a trim deployment of a trim device based on the desired roll angle. The desired turn rate may be calculated based on a steering input from an operator-controlled steering input device, such as a steering while, for example. Alternatively, the desired turn rate may be an output of an autonomous navigation system. The steering angle of at least one propulsion device is then controlled based on the desired turn rate. One or more trim actuators are controlled to move the at least one trim device to the desired trim deployment in order to effectuate the desired turn rate.

Various other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following description taken together with the drawings.

