Autonomous Vessel Navigation Using COLREGS-Compliant Velocity Obstacles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for navigating autonomous waterborne vessels fail to effectively scale to multiple traffic boats and comply with International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) in real-world maritime environments, particularly due to computational and communication delays, noise in perception systems, and uncertainties in motion.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising sensors and a general-purpose programmable computer that detects objects, computes their location, velocity, and heading, and applies COLREGS rules to navigate the vessel safely to a desired location while avoiding collisions, using a strategic planner for mission objectives and a local planner for hazard avoidance and safe navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If existing navigation systems are used for autonomous waterborne vessels, then basic navigation capability is provided, but the systems fail to scale to multiple traffic boats and comply with COLREGS in real-world maritime environments due to computational and communication delays
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation system is segmented into distinct functional modules: a strategic planner module that handles high-level mission planning and COLREGS compliance, and a local planner module that handles real-time hazard avoidance. This segmentation allows each module to operate independently with optimized computational requirements, enabling the system to scale to multiple traffic boats while maintaining real-time responsiveness.
2Reliability
If existing navigation systems are used, then basic obstacle detection is provided, but they fail to account for uncertainties in motion, computational delays, and noise in perception systems
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates safety margins and uncertainty buffers in the planning algorithms. The strategic planner generates trajectories that anticipate potential deviations due to motion uncertainties and sensor noise, while the local planner maintains safety cushions around detected hazards. This approach ensures reliable safe navigation without requiring overly complex real-time correction mechanisms.
3Reliability
If complex navigation algorithms are implemented to handle multiple COLREGS rules and multiple traffic boats, then navigation safety is improved, but computational requirements increase beyond real-time capabilities
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs dynamic planning where the strategic planner operates at lower computational frequency for high-level decisions, while the local planner operates at higher frequency for immediate hazard response. The planning horizon and computational effort are dynamically adjusted based on traffic density, vessel proximity, and COLREGS situation complexity, enabling real-time performance while maintaining safety.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for operating autonomous waterborne vessels in a safe manner. The systems include hardware for identifying the locations and motions of other vessels, as well as the locations of stationary objects that represent navigation hazards. By applying a computational method that uses a maritime navigation algorithm for avoiding hazards and obeying COLREGS using Velocity Obstacles to the data obtained, the autonomous vessel computes a safe and effective path to be followed in order to accomplish a desired navigational end result, while operating in a manner so as to avoid hazards and to maintain compliance with standard navigational procedures defined by international agreement. The systems and methods have been successfully demonstrated on water with radar and stereo cameras as the perception sensors, and integrated with a higher level planner for trailing a maneuvering target.