Safe Maritime Autonomous Navigation With COLREGS, Using Velocity Obstacles

This paper presents an autonomous motion planning algorithm for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to navigate safely in dynamic, cluttered environments. The algorithm not only addresses hazard avoidance (HA) for stationary and moving hazards, but also applies the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (known as COLREGS, for COLlision REGulationS). The COLREGS rules specify, for example, which vessel is responsible for giving way to the other and to which side of the “stand-on” vessel to maneuver. Three primary COLREGS rules are considered in this paper: crossing, overtaking, and head-on situations. For autonomous USVs to be safely deployed in environments with other traffic boats, it is imperative that the USV's navigation algorithm obeys COLREGS. Furthermore, when other boats disregard their responsibility under COLREGS, the USV must fall back to its HA algorithms to prevent a collision. The proposed approach is based on velocity obstacles (VO) method, which generates a cone-shaped obstacle in the velocity space. Because VOs also specify on which side of the obstacle the vehicle will pass during the avoidance maneuver, COLREGS are encoded in the velocity space in a natural way. Results from several experiments involving up to four vessels are presented, in what we believe is the first on-water demonstration of autonomous COLREGS maneuvers without explicit intervehicle communication. We also show an application of this motion planner to a target trailing task, where a strategic planner commands USV waypoints based on high-level objectives, and the local motion planner ensures hazard avoidance and compliance with COLREGS during a traverse.