The NSB335 has been designed from the beginning to be equipped with this system. The photo shows the development of this system, which was selected as a demonstration experiment by the Cabinet Office, and was tested on our boat NSC265.
MICHIBIKI's positioning error is an astonishing 2 to 3 cm or less.
Cabinet Office pageWe have obtained three patents related to this project.
The cockpit is unmanned, data from the MICHIBIKI satellite is received by three antennas, and two bow thrusters are used to control travel and direction. The engine is idling, generating power only, and shifting is in neutral.
The new cruiser NSB335 is equipped with a thruster arrangement stern structure (patented)(OPT) to enable the use of automatic berthing and positioning systems using MICHIBIKI.