boat steering/speed control

[shirley]

For a senior design project, we are building an autonomous catamaram with twin screw propellers powered by electric motors. I am in charge of steering. I want to control the forward and reverse speed of the propellers. I am thinking that I need to control the voltage that drives the propellers. Can you explain how I can do this and what components I will need for this steering/speed control system. Also if you know of any references or sites that can help me, please let me know of them.

 

Thank you

 

shirley

[marke]

Hello Shirley

For a senior design project, we are building an autonomous catamaram with twin screw propellers powered by electric motors. I am in charge of steering. I want to control the forward and reverse speed of the propellers. I am thinking that I need to control the voltage that drives the propellers. Can you explain how I can do this and what components I will need for this steering/speed control system.

To give a sensible answer to this, we need to know what type of motors are you using. Are they DC motors or are they AC.

To control the speed of DC motors, you control the excitation voltage to the field. In series connected motors, you would control the voltage aplied to the motor.

To control the speed of AC motors, you need to control the voltage and frequency together. For this you need to use an inverter. For single phase AC motors, you can not easily control thier speed.

Best regards,

Mark