The German navigation system manufacturer Raytheon Anschütz, together with the German sea weather expert Dr. Meeno Schrader of WetterWelt, has showcased fuel saving capabilities of their adaptive autopilot and ECDIS in a live demonstration at SMM. Raytheon Anschütz is exhibiting at SMM on their newly developed generation of integrated navigation and steering control systems. “Our new NP 5000 autopilot catches great attention from   customers. The requirements for reduction of emissions and fuel savings leading to increasing demand for optimized rudder action and course control in automatic steering”, Andreas Lentfer, Raytheon Anschütz BD Director reviews the first days at SMM.
From a graphical presentation of heading plot and corresponding rudder angles, frequency and amplitudes of rudder angles can easily be identified as key indicators of autopilot efficiency. By using the graphical indication of heading and used rudder angle of the NP 5000 autopilot and the easy structured touch screen display, even untrained user are able to adjust autopilot parameters for a more efficient rudder steering.
However, only to have manual adjustments is not the optimum, as Lentfer explains: “Modern autopilots can also adapt to current weather and sea states automatically. As a unique feature, Anschütz autopilots offer Precision and Economy modes. If operated in Economy mode, rudder movements are significantly reduced to save fuel, whereas operation in Precision mode provides highest accuracy for safe navigation.”
The demonstration has also covered the relevance of optimized route planning. With only a handful of clicks a route can be calculated using the Synapsis ECDIS. Once a route was planned and checked, the integrated weather charts indicate forecasted weather conditions of a primary and a secondary route and thus provides insights into voyage efficiency.
“Formerly it was a wide spread thinking, ECDIS weather chart overlays were to increase comfort and safety for passengers and loading only. But with an increasing importance of emission reduction and fuel savings, weather consideration during route planning becomes significant attention.” Dr. Schrader explains. “As it is know from sailing, wind and waves as well as swells and currents can have heavy impact on own performance.”
Raytheon Anschütz demonstrates the fuel-saving capabilities of modern ECDIS and autopilot technology again this morning from 10 a.m. at their booth 304 in Hall B6.
Source: Raytheon-Anschuetz