The known navigational systems in use perform information functions and as such are helpful in the process of safe conduct of a vessel. One of the ways to assist in reducing the number of marine accidents is the development of systems which perform decision support functions, i.e. automatically generate solutions to collision situations. The use of information (and communication) technologies including knowledge engineering allows the generation of proposals for anti-collision manoeuvres taking into account the COLREGs. Demand for further enhancement of navigational safety by limiting human errors has initiated a trend to convert navigational information systems into decision support systems. The implementation of decision support systems will potentially reduce the number of human errors, which translates into a reduction of accidents at sea and their adverse consequences. This paper presents a summary of the research to date on the navigational decision support system NAVDEC. The system has been positively verified in laboratory conditions and in field tests – on a motor ferry and a sailing ship. Challenges associated with the development and implementation of such systems are outlined.
The biggest challenges in the maritime environment are accidents and excessive fuel consumption. In order to improve the safety of navigation at sea and to reduce fuel consumption, the strategy of anti-collision, shortest trajectory planning is proposed. The strategy described in this paper is based on the beam search method. The beam search algorithm (BSA) takes into account many safe trajectories for the present ship and chooses the best in terms of length and other criteria. The risk of collision of present ship with any target ships is detected when the closest point of approach (CPA) of the present ship is violated by the target ship’s planned trajectory. Only course alteration of the present ship is applied, and not speed alteration. The algorithm has been implemented in the decision support system NAVDEC and tested in a real navigation environment on the m/f Wolin, a Polish ferry. Almost all BSA trajectories calculated were shorter in comparison to the standard NAVDEC-calculated algorithm.
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