Patent ID: 7621790

Claim:
A marine propulsion control system for controlling a set of propulsion units carried by a hull of a vessel, the marine propulsion control system including an input command regulator for generating a desired delivered thrust by the propulsion units in the set of propulsion units, a set of control units, wherein each control unit is associated with a separate propulsion unit in the set of propulsion units, wherein each control unit is arranged to control delivered thrust of the associated propulsion unit depending on input control signals received by the control unit, wherein at least one control unit in the set of control units is arranged to act as a slave control unit in all driving conditions and to receive its input control signals from one or several master control units in the set of control units to adapt the delivered thrust of the propulsion unit associated with the slave control unit to a driving condition of the propulsion unit or units associated with the master control unit or units and the master control unit or units in all driving conditions receives its input control signals directly from the input command regulator, wherein the input command regulator includes a single starboard input command regulator and a single port input command regulator for each function that is under control by the input command regulator and the set of control units includes two master control units including a single starboard master control unit and a single port master control unit and at least one slave control unit.