Abstract

Recent technological advancements have increased unmanned marine traffic worldwide. The Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) have gained much attention due to their potential benefits while the research into motion planning and Collision Avoidance (COLAV) is challenging in marine environments. In this paper, we propose a smart collision alerting and collision avoidance system that can be used in both cooperative and non-cooperative marine environments. The collision avoidance in stand-on vehicles perspective is minimal in the literature. The proposed collision alerting system notifies both the give way and the stand-on vehicles for possible collision encounters, so collision avoidance maneuvers can be executed. The International Marine Organization (IMO) defined the international regulations for preventing collisions at sea (COLREGs [1]) in 1972. All marine traffic should follow COLREGs but there are instances where following COLREGs may lead to collisions. We address such scenarios and show how the proposed collision avoidance system tackles them. The proposed collision avoidance system adheres to COLREGs for both stationary and moving vehicles, but taking smart decisions when complying with COLREGs does not lead to a safe trajectory. Simulations considering realistic elliptical bounding boxes of Ocean Aero’s Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicle (AUSV) Triton and Research Vessel (R/V) Ken Barbor are presented.

Keywords:Unmanned surface vehicles; Collision avoidance; Collision alerts; Smart navigation; Testing & evaluation of unmanned maritime systems