Motion compensating ship personnel transfer gangway - GIF

[Jon]

If two of our recent GIFs (Motion compensating ship crane and Boarding a moving cargo vessel) had a child, it would be this GIF: Motion compensating ship personnel transfer gangway.

It's interesting how this is still a one-person-at-a-time transfer.



Previously:

Boarding a moving cargo vessel - GIF
Motion compensating crane for moving cargo containers at sea - GIF

[rgsparber]

It is always cool to see what a simple feedback system can do given enough power. I wonder how the smaller ship senses the position of the big ship before the gangway is deployed. Maybe there are 3 targets on the big ship and distance sensors on the small ship.

[ranald]

Needs more than the 3 police cameras & computer we have today in a patrol vehicle I suspect. Dare I say it............................Y not....................................I'd be all at sea there. :-).

[12bolts]

The larger vessel looks to be an FPSO The supply ship providing the crew most likely has azimuth thrusters to hold position. Connected to a DGPS system they can maintain incredible position accuracyon the high seas. About the only thing the gangway needs to do is compensate for rise and fall due to wave action.

[Jon]

3:16 source video:

[Jon]

Stewart platform:



More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_platform

[Jon]

The old way of doing it. Transferring from the USS Rankin in 1960.

[ranald]

Takes me back to childhood. Flying foxes were fun even if crossing a flooded river.

[Jon]

Same concept of motion compensating stabilization, but instead of hydraulics...chicken:

[mklotz]

Amazingly, this ability is present in most birds. Watch flamingoes or Canadian geese in flight. The body and lower neck moves up and down with the pulse of the wings but the head is rock-steady, seemingly inertially stabilized.

I've seen films of woodland owls descending on prey on the forest floor. Flying between two closely spaced trees with the outstretched wings vertical to slip through, the head remains locked on the prey with the eyes horizontal.

I can see the survival benefit of such ability in raptors but a flamingo vacuums its food out of muddy water with its head upside down so why does it need inertial guidance?