Toward a COLREGs Compliant Autonomous Surface Vessel in a Constrained Channel

In this article, we look at the role of autonomous navigation in the maritime domain. Specifically, we examine how an autonomous surface vessel (ASV) can achieve obstacle avoidance based on the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (1972), or COLREGs, in real-world environments. Our ASV is equipped with a broadband marine radar, and an inertial navigation system (INS), and uses official electronic navigation charts (ENCs). These sensors are used to provide situational awareness, and, in a series of well-defined steps, we can exclude land objects from the radar data, extract tracks associated with moving vessels within range of the radar, and then use a Kalman filter to track and predict the motion of other moving vessels in the vicinity. A constant velocity model for the Kalman filter allows us to solve the data association to build a consistent model between successive radar scans. We account for multiple COLREGs situations based on the predicted relative motion. Finally, an efficient path planning algorithm is presented to find a path and publish waypoints to perform real-time COLREGs compliant autonomous navigation within highly constrained environments. We demonstrate the results of our framework with operational results collected over the course of a 3.4 nautical mile mission on the Charles River in Boston in which the ASV encountered and successfully navigated multiple scenarios and encounters with other moving vessels at close quarters.