Collision avoidance control for unmanned surface vehicle with COLREGs compliance

Abstract

In this paper, a collision avoidance control algorithm for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) with COLREGs is studied. To solve the constraints of actuator and dynamics in the maneuvering characteristics and the estimation of velocity window parameters in dynamic window approach (DWA), a real-time collision avoidance control algorithm based on dynamic constraints is proposed according to the principle of DWA, which mainly includes the design of candidate control behavior space, feasible trajectory prediction, collision risk assessment, acquisition of optimal control quantities and so on. The candidate control behavior space designed according to DWA meets the actuator constraints; The feasible trajectory prediction method can meet the dynamic constraints and avoid the problem of velocity window parameters estimation in DWA; The optimal control quantity method constructs the collision avoidance control evaluation function according to the collision risk evaluation principle, and obtain the feasible dynamic trajectory and collision avoidance control quantities at the same time. In addition, the collision avoidance rule function is introduced into the collision avoidance control evaluation function to enable the USV to comply with the COLREGs. Finally, simulation results are provided to illustrate the efficacy of collision avoidance control algorithm.