The Algorithm of Determining an Anti-Collision Manoeuvre Trajectory Based on the Interpolation of Ship’s State Vector

• Main Authors: Piotr Borkowski, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, Janusz Magaj
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: autonomous sea-going vessel; anti-collision manoeuvre; ship state vector; interpolation; Dijkstra’s algorithm
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/16/5332

The determination of a ship’s safe trajectory in collision situations at sea is one of the basic functions in autonomous navigation of ships. While planning a collision avoiding manoeuvre in open waters, the navigator has to take into account the ships manoeuvrability and hydrometeorological conditions. To this end, the ship’s state vector is predicted—position coordinates, speed, heading, and other movement parameters—at fixed time intervals for different steering scenarios. One possible way to solve this problem is a method using the interpolation of the ship’s state vector based on the data from measurements conducted during the sea trials of the ship. This article presents the interpolating function within any convex quadrilateral with the nodes being its vertices. The proposed function interpolates the parameters of the ship’s state vector for the specified point of a plane, where the values in the interpolation nodes are data obtained from measurements performed during a series of turning circle tests, conducted for different starting conditions and various rudder settings. The proposed method of interpolation was used in the process of determining the anti-collision manoeuvre trajectory. The mechanism is based on the principles of a modified Dijkstra algorithm, in which the graph takes the form of a regular network of points. The transition between the graph vertices depends on the safe passing level of other objects and the degree of departure from the planned route. The determined shortest path between the starting vertex and the target vertex is the optimal solution for the discrete space of solutions. The algorithm for determining the trajectory of the anti-collision manoeuvre was implemented in autonomous sea-going vessel technology. This article presents the results of laboratory tests and tests conducted under quasi-real conditions using physical ship models. The experiments confirmed the effective operation of the developed algorithm of the determination of the anti-collision manoeuvre trajectory in the technological framework of autonomous ship navigation.