Collision avoidance modeling for a group of marine autonomous vessels

The paper deals with the issue of safe ship movement under the conditions of heavy traffic. The problem of avoiding the collision of groups of vessels is considered. It is noted that avoiding the collision of autonomous (unmanned) ships has its own specific nature. When moving in groups, an autonomous ship needs to “know” the intentions of other participants in order to correctly interpret the regulations for passing ships. This requires an extension of known collision avoidance algorithms for the cases of group locomotion. The paper describes a mathematical model of the ship collision avoidance problem based on traditional geometric representations of the relative motion of ships. The plan of actions for a vessel under the conditions of group locomotion is given. The software tools used to set up computational experiments in collision avoidance of groups of autonomous ships are described. It is noted that the proposed algorithm can be successfully applied to ships with a crew and implemented in automated onboard ship controls. An example of calculating maneuvers for collision avoidance of a group of seven vessels is shown. It is pointed out that setting up full-scale experiments for groups of small-sized models of autonomous surface vessels is necessary in order to test the proposed algorithm and assess the prospects for its use in practice. Recommendations on the possible design of such vessels are given with a view to setting up experiments along with the guidelines for the development of appropriate coastal infrastructure which will provide support for autonomous navigation in the future.

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