Development of outboard type contactless rudder sensor and automatic steering system

In this paper, we developed a core module of the steering system to control and operate the outboard ship with the automatic steering system, and implemented it as a complete integrated system. In particular, this paper presents the problem of the rudder sensor used in the existing system and implements the contactless rudder sensor as an improvement. In the case of existing rudder sensors, there is a problem that safety operation and economic loss of the ship operation is caused by malfunction due to immersion during use in outboard vessels. However, the proposed rudder sensor is separated from the rotary shaft to constitute a contactless type, and a circular magnet is fixed so that the rotating value can be detected and used by the Hall sensor to completely solve the flooding problem. As a result of the characteristic test, the voltage value from 1.8V to 3.2V was obtained between -35° and +35° degrees and satisfied the reference value. The proposed rudder sensor was mounted on the outboard ship, and all the performance of controller system were checked. According to the system proposed in this paper, it satisfies the Korean Standard Specification, which defines the speed of convergence in 30 seconds by switching from left to right in 7 seconds. We also confirmed that automatic steering was performed by comparing the compass sensor with the destination in the integrated controller at the start-up.