From set point to final control element — the foundations of automatic control engineering that keep the modern merchant ship running, safely and self-regulated.
Automation 1 builds the competence STCW Function 2 requires: understanding automatic control systems, their configuration, and their behaviour aboard modern merchant ships.
Trace the signal from measurement to correction. Each module opens a full lesson viewer with learning outcomes, content, tasks, quiz, and essay assessments.
Every automatic control loop aboard ship, however complex, performs these four functions. Master them and a bewildering variety of machinery resolves into one understandable pattern.
Sensors and transducers detect the true condition of the process.
Transmitters, converters, and controllers compare, decide, and command.
Valves and actuators act on the process to remove the error.
Monitoring, alarms, and trips keep the plant and crew safe.
Step into the engine control room of a modern merchant ship and the first surprise is how quiet it can be. Where engineers once stood watch beside thundering machinery, a single officer today supervises the propulsion plant from a console of screens — machinery running under automatic control, the space periodically unmanned.
Automation 1 (Basic Control Engineering) begins the formation of the competence STCW requires of the Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch: working knowledge of automatic control systems, their configuration, and their behaviour. The course carries the student from the concept of the control loop, through measurement, signal conditioning, and the control actions, to valves, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, monitoring, protection, troubleshooting, and safe laboratory practice.