Reduction of ship steering gear load at high sea states by decreasing rudder angular velocity

The article discusses causes of steering gear overload at high sea states when a ship is kept on course in aut opilot mode. The presented research results refer to simulations of a ship-autopilot system on a preset course in the presence of varying intensity disturbances (various sea states), with updated alterations of rudder angular velocity (the velocity changes are executed discretely) determined by the function block for conventional sea state determination.