Navigation safety domain and collision risk index for decision support of collision avoidance of USVs

Abstract

This paper proposes a decision support model for USVs to improve the accuracy of collision avoidance decision-making. It is formed by Navigation Safety Domain (NSD) and domain-based Collision Risk Index (CRI), capable of determining the collision stage and risk between multiple ships. The NSD is composed of a warning domain and a forbidden domain, which is constructed under the constraints of COLREGs (International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea). The proposed domain based CRI takes the radius of NSD in various encounter situations as threshold parameters. It is found that the value of collision risk in any directions can be calculated, including actual value and risk threshold. A catamaran USV and 6 given vessels are taken as study objects to validate the proposed model. It is found that the judgment of collision stage is accurate and the azimuth range of risk exists can be detected, hence the ships can take direct and effective collision avoidance measures. According to the relation between the actual value of CRI and risk threshold, the decision support rules are summarized, and the specific terms of COLREGs to be followed in each encounter situation are given.