ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,534,167, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to Tiancheng Electrical Marine Equipment Pte. Ltd. (Singapore).
"Autonomous vessel" was invented by Li Tiancheng (Singapore) and Anna Huey Ling Soh (Singapore).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An autonomous vessel and method for maintaining precise position or trajectory during marine operations, such as cable or pipe laying or offshore construction and installation, are disclosed. The vessel includes multiple mooring lines anchored externally, a winch system with tension sensors, a position sensor, and a control system. The control system processes positional and tension data to detect deviations ca...