MOTION REGULATING SYSTEM FOR
FLOATING BODY
The invention relates to the development of an automatic system by which any floating
body in the water will be made stationary at any desired position without running the
engine, by just increasing the water plane area of the ship or the intact volume of water
i.e. increasing the static resistance. The system will make the ship stable in heavy water
condition from rolling and pitching. If a ship has this system it is nearly impossible that
the ship can topple.
The present invention relates to a system specifically used for fixing the position
of the ship mainly for short time intervals for building up structures or for lifting things in
water, which was previously done by vessels by lowering anchor or by dynamic
positioning system. It can be used for providing a breaking force, a trimming resistance,
for making a ship stationary with respect to other vessels and for providing an extra side
hull.
As per previous methods for restricting the movement of the vessel, generally an
anchor for long time prospective and dynamic positioning system for short period are
used respectively but in these methods there are certain drawbacks as an anchor must be
caught somewhere in sea bed which is a trial method . It also needs a specific mechanism
called windlass to operate. Moreover it cannot be operated at all places but in a de-
marketed area which depends on the sea depth and anchor chain length. If the sea is too
deep then the anchor cannot be lowered. The dynamic positioning system uses bow
thrusters and sensitive sensors for its functioning and it also consumes power.
All these systems create a permanent friction force and are less flexible in design,
also not useful for small ships. Because there will be a thorough change in hull by
adopting these systems.
So the objective of present invention is to develop a method which will restrict the
movement of the vessel and also provide stability without running the engine i.e. not
burning fuel.
New approaches have taken place regarding the use of the water plane area ot
ship as us patent 3590704 , here water plane area used for measuring the height of the
vessel and us patent 5592858 and us patent 673267 uses the water plane area for speed
consideration. None of these are considered for maneuvering and stability of the ship but
us patent 5694877 uses large water plane area for maneuvering. Some considerations
towards stability is taken in us patent 5129343 using large water plane area.
On the other hand bow thrusters are delicate, heavy and costly so they cannot be
installed in small vessels so the small vessels only use anchors for fixing the position of
the vessel in water or sometimes they use nothing and rely on the calm weather
conditions.
Although anchor is a simple mechanism but most of the time it suffers from deep
sea conditions. The bow thrusters and anchors are equipped with heavy, expensive and
specialized tools, something which works for special sizes of ships and require time to
switch on at each time of operation. The bow thrusters generally use Global Positioning

System and sea wave condition which are dependent on weather, for functioning. That is
why there is no work in bad weather at sea. The objective of present invention is to
describe a complete reliable automated and time-saving system which can work without
running engines, which also does not suffer from the problem of aforesaid system,
programmable to handle efficiently a vessel of any size at all sea weather conditions by a
very simple mechanism without any type of fault as per desired position fixing plan.
The basic objective of this complete system is to overcome the problem of the
above said systems described as prior arts for fixing the position of ships. The present
invention comprises plain plates of metal which form a rectangular box which surrounds
the floating body. The plates will be placed at variable distances to cover variable volume
of water and variable water plane area. The rectangular box includes a large volume of
water so the ship's centre of gravity moves sufficiently downwards without much
alteration of centre of buoyancy. This increases the stability of the ship.
By including this system there is a resistive force which comes to the ship which
opposes any type of motion of the ship by the surrounding or even when the ship tries to
move itself, because the resistive force is directly proportional to the surface area.
Moreover when the plates moves vertically downwards into the water the intact valume
of water increases thus the inertia force increases and causes resistance to motion.
A vessel without engine moves because of two reasons, first by the wind forces
and secondly by the under currents of water. The uppermost surface of water does not
move, it acts like a sheet of water, stretched to the banks or shores, just motioning up and
down. The rectangular block increases the surface area and inertia force thus increases
the resistive force which opposes the motion, there can be water tanks to sink the ship a
little bit and lessen the area of the ship which is exposed to wind forces. For
undercurrents there are nozzle and piping arrangements which give a relative velocity to
water which is imparted on the undercurrent of water so there is an opposite force which
adds to resistive force. The system is controlled by a motor and wire mechanism. The
rectangular box of plates remains up and surrounds the vessel body when the ship moves
and whenever there is a need of increasing the friction for stabilizing or stopping the ship
the rectangular box will be lowered by roller and wire mechanism. This can be done
manually or automatically by embedded system using microcontrollers. This flexibility
and simplicity in design makes it robust and liable for see going conditions and also
useful for small vessels. This invention will be very useful for floating drydock operation.
The plates can be used for reducing the water also.
Brief description of the drawing;
Figl is the isometric view of one unit of the system consisting of the plates, bearing layer
on plates and on the side hull with rollers and wire mechanism with all the supporting and
elongating bar assembly embodying the invention. The fig relates when the vessel is
running and not adjusting the trim.
Fig2 is the front view of the mechanism of the single unit comprising of the roller and
wire system, shows the plates in vertical position.

Fig3 is the front view of the wire and roller mechanism when the plates are in horizontal
position with all the mechanism embedded.
Fig4 is the top view of the system with the plates, bearing layer plates, rollers and wire
mechanism with controlling system.
Fig5 is the isometric view of the motor shaft.
Fig6 is the front view of the motor shaft showing different wounding surfaces for
separate plates and movements.
Fig7 is the front view of the base roller showing the separate rolling surfaces for different
moving wires.
Fig8 is the top view of the controlling motor operating two opposite plates comprising of
base rollers and motor shaft.
Fig9 is the front view of single unit, when the plate is in vertically lowered position.
Figl0 is the front view of a single plate unit with nozzles intact.
Figl 1 is the side view of the two plate unit with nozzle intact.
Fig 12 is the side view of the securing arrangement of a plate unit at mid ship section.
Detailed description of the preferred embodiments:
The present invention describes a system which comprises the plate, bearing layer, wire
and motor system which actually act as an independent system and used for mainly ship's
movement related problems.
With reference to detailed description of the described drawing, the overall system which
is indicated in its entry figl, it is an isometric view of single plate unit, in it the reference
characters 1, 2 and 3 are the supporting bars on which bars 30, 31, 32 can be elongated
along their central axis, rollers 33, 34, 35 are attached to these bars respectively, rollers 4,
5,6 are the base rollers, they are nearer to ship's hull. The wire mechanism is controlled
by motor 14 and goes through rollers 4, 5, 6 and supporting rollers 25,26,27
respectively. The rollers 25, 26, 27 and 28,29, 50 help to give the plates vertical motion
and also axis of rotation. The wire 36,37 are connected to the stiffening bar 12, which is
connected to plate 13 and lies between the plates 13 and bearing layer 15. The roller
sequence 25, 28,10,4 for unit wire system with controlling motor 14 is to make plates
vertical and also to help to retain the plate in vertical and horizontal position. 15, 16 are
the bearing layers on the plate and the ship side hull respectively. It is to work on the
momentum transfer principle and transfer force on the water. The hull bearing 16 will
also move by the same mechanism as plates, by wire 27, fig9. When the plates are to be
lowered the wire 17 will wound on the motor 14 on the winding surface 18, figl and fig6,

and from surface 19 the wire 17 unwound. Thus a downward force is created. The plates
are made to go downward to the depth depend upon the position of bar 21, fig2.
The wire 36, 37 constraint to the motion and move accordingly, this is done by gearing
arrangement 41, fig 6.
The water intact volume can be increased by the elongating and the supporting bars 30,
31, 32 and 1,2, 3 respectively. When the plates are to be lifted the reverse operation will
be done wire 17 will be unwound on the surface 18 of the motor and wire 17 will wound
on the motor shaft 19, the lifting procedure ,fig 2, is done by the help of supporting bars
1,2,3,21, 22, 23 and rollers25,26,27,28,29,30 respectively, in figl . The base roller
arrangement is also quite special as in fig7.
When the plate is to be made horizontal then the bars 30,31,32 are elongated and wire 36
will wound on surface 38 and wire 37 will unwound on surface 39. Base roller is
provided with special rolling shaft for this fig7. The position of plate is fixed by wire 17
and the plates are made vertical and horizontal by wires 36 and 37 about the hinges 40
fig9, which are controlled by controlling mechanism. When the plates are to be made
vertical the opposite procedure is done.
Figl0 and figl 1 shows the nozzle 51, 52 and pipe arrangement 53 which balance the
undercurrent thrust .The nozzle 51 has a stopper 54. Figl2 shows the securing
arrangement of plates while ship is running.
Now this whole procedure will be carried out on each plate unit separately or
simultaneously as per desired movement solving problem. Diametrically opposite plate
unit can be controlled by same controlling unit, fig8.

I claim,
1. Automatic motion regulating system comprising -
A number of rectangular plates which will be of same or different dimensions,
plates are hanging from the side of ship supported by wire and bar mechanism,
covering its periphery in this manner, plates are perpendicular to the water plane
when the ship is to be fixed and are parallel when it is liable to move freely, then
the plate will not cause any resistance;
At least one pair of bearing layer to be fixed in between the rectangular plate and
ship side hull, one is fixed to the plate and other to ship side, it is in the plane of
the plate and moves with the plate;
A motor, wire, roller and bar mechanism will be used to operate plate system;
A hydraulic jaw and connecting rod mechanism is another method, which is at the
ship side which makes the rectangular plates parallel, perpendicular and also gives
the upward and downward motion;
Each plate can be and not be controlled by same or different mechanism;
The mechanism is relatively at the lower level from the deck in big ship and will
be at suitable position in small ship from where it is easy to handle .The system
will be controlled by either hydraulic or motor wire mechanism as a suitable
method.
2. Automatic motion regulating system as claimed in claim 1 comprising each said
motor and wire system has a passage sufficient to accommodate and the gearing
arrangements are such that they can move plates up- down and vertical -
horizontal ways.
3. Automatic motion regulating system comprising a fix supply point as said in
claim 1 and 2 and rollers, stoppers or elongating bars fixed on the supporting bars
except base roller and the wire system is applied on this as claimed in claim 2.
4. Automatic motion regulating system has minimum of three base roller mechanism
for single plate unit, one in the middle and remaining are connected
symmetrically to the ends of plate unit, each wire must go through socket for the
proper adjustment of the plate. Each wire is fitted to the plate near the stiffening
bar, the wire and stiffening bar must be able to position the plate from horizontal
to vertical and vice-versa.
5. Automatic motion regulating system has a special bearing layer as said in claim 1
which works on momentum transfer principle without any lubrication.

6. Automatic motion regulating system as herein described with reference to use
accompanying drawings.

Automatic motion regulating system is mainly for stabilizing and stopping the floating
body. This system will be used for providing breaking force and for giving a relative
motion between other floating bodies which has similar system. For giving stability to
ship in the condition of rolling, pitching, listing and surging. A motor, wire, roller and bar mechanism keeps the rectangular plates in motion and makes them horizontal, vertical,
up or down. The motor - wire mechanism will be secured at a proper height as to facilitate control. This system will be both manual and automatic. The manual system has an electrical panel and the automatic system consists of an embedded system which controls and synchronizes the motion of different motors in the system. The embedded system comprises of microcontroller unit along with the driver circuit. These circuits control the rotation of motor as programmed.