USA PATENT

ABSTRACT

Due to the two unique active and passive stabilization features of the preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship; the first feature it is a marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship; the second feature it is spinning the entire ship for unparalleled stabilization; they act together for unparalleled stability. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship utilizes the entire spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship as a giant, slow spinning, gyroscope to achieve unparalleled stabilization. The preferred embodiment is a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship which eliminates bows, sterns, starboard sides, port sides, external decks, superstructures, keels; and eliminates orientation along a horizontal central longitudinal axis between bows and sterns; and also nearly eliminates all motions such as yaw, pitch, roll, heave, sway and surge caused by waves throughout the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17. The preferred embodiment is a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, which creates unparalleled stabilization when Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17 increase in magnitude; these motions of yaw, pitch, roll, heave, sway and surge are nearly eliminated and prevent catastrophic capsizing, sinking, hull fracture, hull separation, broaching, pitchpoling, swamping, etc.  

BACKGROUND

Most marine vessels that are surface ships, whether they are monohulls, multihulls, displacement hulls, planing hulls or semi displacement hulls, have bows, sterns, starboard sides,  port sides, external decks, superstructures, and keels; and these features are oriented along their horizontal central longitudinal axis between their bows and their sterns. Most marine vessel that are surface ships are sensitive in how they orient themselves to waves that may occur in Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17 and this sensitivity increases dangerously as Beaufort Extended Scale numbers increase and wave size increases. Most marine vessels that are surface ships have motions such as yaw, pitch, roll, heave, sway and surge caused by waves throughout the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17. As Beaufort Extended Scale 0-17 numbers increase in magnitude; these motions also increase in magnitude and can cause catastrophic capsizing, sinking, hull fracture, hull separation, broaching, pitchpoling, swamping, etc. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is not sensitive to how it orients itself to waves that occur in Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is insensitive to how it orients itself to waves. A spherical Spinning Stabilized spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship with its infinite continuous rotational symmetry; eliminates bows, sterns, starboard sides, port sides, external decks, superstructures, keels; and eliminates orientation along a horizontal central longitudinal axis between bows and sterns; and nearly eliminates all motions such as yaw, pitch, roll, heave, sway and surge caused by waves throughout the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17. The two unique stabilization features of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship; which are first that the entire ship is a sphere with infinite continuous rotational symmetry; and second that the entire ship is spinning to create gyroscopic stabilization for the entire ship; and they  act, at will, simultaneously together; and when Beaufort Extended Scale numbers increase in magnitude, these motions are nearly eliminated and prevent catastrophic capsizing, sinking, hull fracture, hull separation, broaching, pitchpoling, swamping, etc. A third unique stabilization feature is when the entire ship is spinning for stabilization the entire ship can simultaneously navigate and maneuver any course in any and all sea conditions throughout the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17.

        SUMMARY

A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, which is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and a surface ship, is not oriented along a horizontal central longitudinal axis. The preferred embodiment of this invention which is named, Spinning Stabilized Ship, and is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship and; has the feature of spinning the entire spherical monohull, marine vessel, and surface ship for gyroscopic stabilization. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship must be able to navigate as a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship when the spinning of its entirety is activated or deactivated, at will. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship's loaded displacement tonnage weight must be evenly distributed and be well balanced around its central vertical axis. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship serves in its entirety as  a single monohull buoyant structure. The fact that a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is insensitive to how it orients itself to waves that occur in Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17 is because its spherical geometric shape is the very reason  why the spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is insensitive to how it orients to all waves. Therefore a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship with its infinite continuous rotational symmetry, eliminates bows, sterns, starboard sides, port sides, external decks, superstructures, keels; and eliminates orientation along a horizontal central longitudinal axis between bows and sterns and also nearly eliminates all motions such as yaw, pitch, roll, heave, sway and surge caused by waves found throughout the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17. When the stabilizing features of spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship act synchronously together; and when the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers increase in magnitude; these motions are nearly eliminated and prevent catastrophic capsizing, sinking, hull fracture, hull separation, broaching, pitchpoling, swamping, etc. 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The preferred embodiment of spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship which has infinite continuous rotational symmetry and has interior multiple decks that would generally have spaces for propulsion, navigation, shelter wet decks for work, shelter wet decks for recreation, machine shop, hatch covered or uncovered helipad, helm, fuel tanks, passenger and crew quarters, galley, heads, pools, hot tubs, saunas, gyms, libraries, theaters, desalination freshwater system, sewage treatment system, auxiliary craft launch and haul out wet deck, etc. Customized versions  of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, could be built as a customized explorer super yacht, a research vessel, naval vessel, cruise ship, coastguard vessel, commercial fishing vessel and other types of commercial vessels; and they all would act as a giant spinning gyroscope for stabilization which is a unique approach to marine vessel and surface ship design compared to other marine vessels and surface ships. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship has azimuthing omnidirectional thrusters which are marine propulsion units; housed in exterior or interior mounted steerable pods; that can rotate a full 360 degrees. By directing thrust in any horizontal direction, they eliminate the need for traditional rudders, providing vessels with unprecedented pinpoint maneuverability. Multiple azimuthing omnidirectional thrusters are capable of generating and directing horizontal thrust in a full 360 degree range of direction and are mounted on the bottom of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship. Azimuthing omnidirectional thrusters are programmed to synchronously generate horizontal thrust for spinning, at will, the spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship's entirety around its central vertical axis which generates gyroscopic stabilization and also generate directional horizontal propulsion with a 360 degree range of propulsive horizontal thrust to propel, at will, spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship in any direction. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship can generate a 360 degree range of directional horizontal propulsive thrust when it isn't spinning, at will. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship  can generate horizontal propulsion for spinning its entirety for stabilization when the spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is not making way, at will, and it is holding a fixed position or just drifting. The spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship's loaded total displacement tonnage weight must have balanced weight distribution around its central vertical axis. The spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship's loaded displacement tonnage weight must also be distributed so the entire ship is counterbalanced with more weight concentrated towards the bottom of the ship and less weight towards the top of the ship; therefore creating a sufficiently strong self-righting moment which makes the entire ship become auto self-righting. The spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship's size should be large enough to spin its entire mass at a gyroscopic spinning rate of speed which is tolerable and safe for humans onboard without generating dangerous excessive centrifugal force inside the interior of the spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship can be built in many sizes and have many different number of interior decks and have different hull speeds and have different spinning rates. An example of one size of the preferred embodiment would be a 100 foot in diameter spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship. According to Froude's law, the hull speed would be approximately 12.83 knots or (14.77 mph). It would spin for stabilization at one full rotation per minute at approximately (3.6 mph) along the circumference at the equator of the interior. All the following interior space measurements are approximate measurements. All interior space for passengers and crew, would have six decks of interior space with 37,364 square feet of deck space. These six decks individually are deck five 7536 square feet, deck six 7850 square feet, deck seven 7536 square feet, deck eight 6592 square feet, deck nine 5024 square feet and deck ten 2826 square feet. The seven upper decks are above the waterline. Interior lower four decks  house fuel tanks and entire propulsion system. The three lowest decks of the lower four decks are below the waterline. The number of azimuthing omnidirectional thrusters that are mounted on the bottom of the spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship depends on the size and weight of the fully loaded spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship and the amount of thrust  required to be generated by the azimuthing omnidirectional thrusters. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship in its entirety is a single buoyant structure. The preferred embodiment is a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship which has infinite continuous rotational symmetry around an infinite number of axes. No matter how you tilt or spin a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, it presents the same profile from every angle. A three dimensional spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship has infinite rotational symmetry because every single point on its surface is exactly the same distance from its center. Because it lacks edges, corners, or flat faces, you can spin a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship around any axis and by any angle and it will look completely identical to its starting position. A spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is defined as the set of all points in three dimensional space that are a fixed distance, the radius, from a single central point. Because there is no "preferred" direction or side, changing its orientation does not change the shape. You can draw an infinite number of imaginary axis lines straight through the center of spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship. No matter which of these axes you choose to spin spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship around, its appearance remains unchanged. Therefore, since a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship only spins on one chosen engineered, very specific, central and vertical axis, its appearance always remains unchanged. Three dimensional infinite continuous rotational symmetry refers to full spherical symmetry where an object is invariant under rotation about any arbitrary axis. Therefore a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, with its infinite continuous rotational symmetry; eliminates bows, sterns, starboard sides, port sides, external decks, superstructures, keels; and eliminates orientation along a horizontal central longitudinal axis between bows and sterns; and also nearly eliminates all motions such as yaw, pitch, roll, heave, sway and surge caused by waves throughout the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17. The stabilization features of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship which is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship; act together when Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17 increase in magnitude, these motions are nearly eliminated and prevent catastrophic capsizing, sinking, hull fracture, hull separation, broaching, pitchpoling, swamping, etc. 

CLAIMS

CLAIM 1. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship and has infinite continuous rotational symmetry, and its entirety  is invariant under rotation about any arbitrary axis, and can spin, at will, its entirety around a  specific single central vertical axis to create unparalleled stabilization. 

CLAIM 2. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship and has infinite continuous rotational symmetry; and can generate directional horizontal propulsive thrust using multiple azimuthing omnidirectional thrusters, which are mounted on its bottom as a propulsion system to propel, at will, its entirety in a full 360 degree range of direction.

CLAIM 3. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, which is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship, has infinite rotational symmetry and can generate horizontal thrust to spin, at will, its entirety around its central vertical axis to generate gyroscopic stabilization by using multiple azimuthing omnidirectional  thrusters, which are mounted on its bottom and are individually capable of directing thrust in a full 360 degree range of direction. 

CLAIM 4. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, which is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship, has infinite continuous rotational symmetry and can generate horizontal thrust to synchronously spin, at will, its entirety around its central vertical axis and propel, at will, its entirety by generating directional horizontal propulsive thrust in a 360 degree range around its central vertical axis using multiple azimuthing omnidirectional thrusters which are mounted on its bottom. 

CLAIM 5. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, which is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship, can operate, at will, in the following operational states of motion in water; underway without spinning, underway while spinning, holding station without spinning, holding station while spinning, drifting without spinning and drifting while spinning.

CLAIM 6. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship, which is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship, has the feature that the speed of the spinning rate of its entirety can be adjusted, at will, to a faster or slower speed of spinning rate at any time to adjust the degree of stabilization in all changing sea conditions.

CLAIM 7. The preferred embodiment of a spherical Spinning Stabilized Ship which is a spinning marine vessel, spherical monohull and surface ship; with its infinite continuous rotational symmetry, eliminates bows, sterns, starboard sides, port sides, external decks, superstructures, keels; and eliminates orientation along a horizontal central longitudinal axis between bows and sterns and nearly eliminates all motions such as yaw, pitch, roll, heave, sway and surge caused by waves throughout the Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17; when Beaufort Extended Scale numbers 0-17 increase in magnitude then these motions are nearly eliminated and prevent catastrophic capsizing, sinking, hull fracture, hull separation, broaching, pitchpoling, swamping, etc.