Safety-Critical Path Planning and Following of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships for Automatic Docking

This paper addresses the integrated path planning and following problem of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASSs) moving in a complex sea environment containing static and dynamic obstacles. A safety-critical path planning and following method is proposed for an MASS based on mixed vector field and control barrier function. Specifically, a safe path is planned based on the mixed vector field where static obstacles are avoided. Based on the planned safe path, a collision-free path following guidance law is proposed based on control barrier functions, in which collision avoidance constraints with the dynamic obstacles are encoded. The proposed integrated path planning and following method is applied to the automatic docking mission. Simulation results show that the efficacy of proposed safety-critical path planning and path following guidance method for the MASS.