A COLREGs-based obstacle avoidance approach for unmanned surface vehicles

作者：Wang, Yanlong^*; Yu, Xuemin^*; Liang, Xu; Li, Baoan

来源：Ocean Engineering, 2018, 169: 110-124.

DOI：10.1016/j.oceaneng.2018.09.012

• Obstacle avoidance
• Unmanned surface vehicle
• Local path planning
• COLREGs
• Normal distribution curve

This paper reports the preliminary research results of a novel automatic obstacle avoidance approach based on the COLREGs for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). The approach presented is essentially a path searching based algorithm called the local normal distribution-based trajectory, which plans viable avoidance trajectories in the presence of both static and dynamic obstacles. The proposed algorithm can generate a COLREGs-compliant suboptimal trajectory based on the bell-shaped curve of normal distribution and extract waypoints for the navigation controller to steer USVs safely. In addition, we discuss three key parameters and present a trajectory replanning strategy to improve the safety and flexibility of our approach. The common overtaking, crossing and head-on collision scenarios are each simulated in experiments. It is shown through simulations that the proposed approach considers multiple factors and can plan paths to avoid obstacles safely and smoothly. A comparison is also made with a reactive path planning algorithm which has been modified to follow the COLREGs.

• 出版日期2018-12-1
• 单位中国科学院信息工程研究所; 北京航空航天大学