Navigation Decision-Making Method of Complex Multitype Ships’ Routing Waters

Abstract

The navigation decision-making method has attracted increasing attention in recent years. However, most of the research is concentrated on open waters. This study proposes a navigation decision-making method suitable for ships’ routing waters, considering both seamanship and the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). The navigation decision-making method consists of four modules: a traffic environment digitalization module, a collision risk identification module, a ship motion control module, and a collision avoidance decision-making model. To eliminate error, a rolling method based on time series was designed to realize the real-time rolling update of the navigation decision-making scheme. In theory, the proposed model can realize autonomous navigation in the study waters. Two sets of experiments were designed to demonstrate the navigation decision-making method. The experimental results show that the collision avoidance scheme obtained by the navigation decision-making method can effectively avoid a target ship. When the motion state of the target ship changes, the navigation decision-making method can immediately identify and recalculate the collision avoidance scheme. This algorithm is a reasonable and effective system for collision avoidance, particularly in multiship encounter situations of target ships suddenly altering course or changing speed.