Trajectory Planning with Obstacle Avoidance using APF and COLREGS for USVs

This paper presents a trajectory planning and obstacle avoidance system for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV) in complex and dynamic navigation environments. The developed system employs a modified Artificial Potential Field (APF) algorithm and the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) to ensure safe and efficient navigation. Modifications were implemented to the original algorithm to deal with obstacles approaching the autonomous vehicle, including adding vectors to determine the direction of deviation based on the cross-product. The proposed system was validated in the Gazebo simulation environment within a dynamic scenario featuring static and moving obstacles.