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A navigation system particularly adapted for ships making a passing within a harbor or the like, utilizing signal inputs from on-board vessel position determining equipment such as Loran or Decca apparatus and an on-board object detecting equipment such as a radar or sonar apparatus. The system furt

A navigation system particularly adapted for ships making a passing within a harbor or the like, utilizing signal inputs from on-board vessel position determining equipment such as Loran or Decca apparatus and an on-board object detecting equipment such as a radar or sonar apparatus. The system further includes an on-board vessel position computer which operates in a differential Loran mode in response to observed Loran time differences, stored data from an initial calibration, and Loran grid offset data from an on-shore monitor system to compute a highly accurate current or present position fix in longitude and latitude whereupon the computer causes a predetermined electronic chart to be displayed in color on the screen of a cathode ray tube, being generated from a plurality of electronic charts stored in the form of digital files in memory. The selected chart, together with the present position of the ship, is displayed along with preselected alpha-numeric indicia of data relating to bearings, way points, ranges, “time to go”, etc., also generated in accordance with the computed vessel position. Radar target returns of the local land mass and other stationary moving targets are additionally received by the ship\s radar. The radar image of the target echoes is next referenced to and superimposed on the electronic chart generated; however, the radar\s land mass echoes are suppressed in favor of the electronic chart land mass while displaying all other targets.

대표청구항 ▼

A method of navigating a vehicle, comprising the steps of: (a) fixing the present geographical location of said vehicle within a predetermined localized area and generating electrical signals corresponding to said present location; (b) generating an electronic navigational chart in response to said

A method of navigating a vehicle, comprising the steps of: (a) fixing the present geographical location of said vehicle within a predetermined localized area and generating electrical signals corresponding to said present location; (b) generating an electronic navigational chart in response to said electrical signals and including land contours, land masses and other fixed objects in said localized area; (c) detecting objects in said localized area on board said vehicle and generating electrical signals for an electronic map of the detected land contours, land masses, other fixed objects as well as moving objects in said localized area; (d) establishing the geographic center of said map independently of detecting objects in accordance with step (c) and generating offset signals corresponding to the vehicle\s real time position in longitude and latitude relative to said navigational chart as well as being oriented along a common compass reference; (e) electronically combining said signals of a navigational chart and said signals of a map in response to said offset signals and generating composite signals therefrom wherein an accurate alignment of said map and said chart is inherently effected automatically when displayed; and (f) generating a composite map type visual display indicating said land contours, land masses, said fixed and moving objects for aiding said vehicle navigating through said localized area.