A Systematic Review of Deep Learning-Based Methods for Ship Trajectory Prediction

With the rapid growth of the global shipping industry and the increasing availability of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, accurate vessel trajectory prediction has become crucial for ensuring navigational safety and optimizing maritime traffic management. This paper presents a systematic review of recent advances in deep learning-based methods for vessel trajectory prediction. We provide a comprehensive analysis of mainstream models, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) networks, Sequence-to-Sequence (Seq2Seq) models, and the Transformer architecture. Their performance is compared in terms of spatio-temporal data processing capability, prediction accuracy, and computational efficiency. Furthermore, this review examines practical applications of these methods in scenarios such as collision avoidance and route optimization. Despite notable progress, several challenges remain, including data quality issues, real-time prediction capability, and model interpretability. Future research directions may focus on multi-source data fusion and the development of lightweight model designs to further improve prediction performance. This survey aims to serve as a valuable reference for researchers and contribute to ongoing innovation in vessel trajectory prediction technology.