Improved Design in Fishing Operation System for Small Inshore and Coastal Fishing Vessels -II -Design of a Remote Steering System-
A combination steering system was designed to provide the flexibility in controlling the steering wheel in fishing operations of the inshore and coastal fishing vessels. The designed steering system basically is consisted of three driving units, such as a electrically driven hydraulic pump unit with a solenoid control valve, a DC motor driven hydraulic pump unit and a manually driven hydraulic pump unit, and two controllers to provide remote steering on the deck, respectively. The steering torque was measured and analyzed to investigate the dynamic performance of the developed steering system. The steering system showed excellent linearity between the working pressure of cylinder and the torque of rudder post in case of increasing in rudder angle from 5˚ to 35˚ that is, the steering torque increased from 10.4 kgf·m to 105.3 kgf·m and then the working pressure of cylinder fluctuated from 6.3 kgf/cm super(2) to 16.4 kgf/cm super(2). The steering time of 3.2 sec in remote hydraulic steering by the on/off solenoid valve control was much faster than 13.2 sec in the manual steering by the helmsman and 11.6 sec in the electric steering by a DC motor, and then it was verified that operation of one unit does not affect other units in combination steering system in any way. Furthermore, the developed steering system can be remotely controlled in multiple stations of the deck during the fishing operation and the automatic pilot steering unit can be used to add hydraulic steering.