An Improved B-Spline-Based Collision Avoidance Decision for MASS in Complex Multi-Ship Environments

To address the issue of collision avoidance for ships encountering multiple ships in complex environments, this paper studies a collision avoidance decision algorithm for Marine Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) based on an improved B-spline. Firstly, a hyperplane is utilized to separate the target ship from the own ship, effectively reducing the need for extensive searches on nautical charts. Secondly, the shortest collision avoidance path is planned with the objective of minimizing the total navigation time. Finally, taking a part of the waters of Tianjin Port as an example, multi-ship encounter scenarios are designed for simulation experiments. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively solve the multi-ship collision avoidance problem and complies with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). This method provides a theoretical foundation for the autonomous navigation technology of MASS.