Ship Autopilot Software - A Case Study

摘要

Software of a ship autopilot, particularly its structure and size, developed in cooperation with a Dutch company is described. It is written in ST language, typical for PLCs and automation systems, in CPDev engineering environment. HMI displays are created by a graphic editor. The autopilot provides typical functionalities, such as heading control, track control, turn by radius and rate of turn, involving PID controllers. Wave-induced motions affecting the rudder are filtered out. Ship dynamics is identified by zig-zag or sinusoidal maneuvers. Control and HMI programs are executed by a runtime virtual machine.