Importance

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Abstract

An autopilot system for a vessel such as a boat has an autopilot unit connected via a drive to the rudder or other direction determining means of the vessel. When the autopilot unit is operating normally, direction information from e.g. a heading sensor is processed by the autopilot unit and the drive is controlled by the autopilot unit to determine the appropriate position of the rudder. The rudder is also linked to a steering wheel or other manual steering arrangement. When the steering wheel is moved during normal operation of the autopilot unit, this causes an interference with the control of the rudder by the drive and, if this interference has sufficient magnitude and duration, this triggers override of the autopilot unit, returning the vessel to manual control via the steering wheel. The override may alternatively be triggered by detection of rudder movement by a sensor.

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First Claim