Читать книгу Designing Agentive Technology - Christopher Noessel - Страница 38

Boat captains navigating easy seas simply need to keep the boat pointed in the same direction. Early mechanical systems worked by using a wind vane to keep the boat at the same angle against the wind. Today these systems are known by a couple of names, with marine autopilots being the most common and autohelm being a genericized trademark of Raymarine’s product line (which nicely distinguishes it from aviation autopilots). In their simplest mode, the captain presses the AUTO button, demonstrates the angle at which it must be held, and then lets go to attend to other things around the boat, like perhaps a nice hot buttered rum or the next track of yacht rock.

More expensive configurations pair with GPS, sonar, and course-plotting devices to make the autohelm aware of the heading, obstacles above and below the water, location (and corresponding maritime law), and planned course. Touching the tiller or ship’s wheel can be the exception and not the rule.

Understanding this function of the autohelm, it’s easy to see how a captain on a short pleasure ride might get distracted by other things on the boat and need to recover quickly when she finds herself off course or hears the drone of an alarm from the autohelm, or finds her vessel in all sorts of possible trouble. Since the device is an add-on to the normal mechanics of a ship, the pilot can use normal means to assess the problem, quickly disengage the device to take manual control if necessary, or troubleshoot the electronics if the problem is the technology itself.