Intelligent Collision Danger Assessment of Autonomous Unmanned Sea-Going Vessels

Navigation safety of both sea-going crewed ships and sea-going autonomous unmanned ships is possible to improve by enhancing navigation engineering facilities, including software and soft hardware (firmware), providing control over navigation tools on such ships. The article dwells on the technique of an intelligent assessment of collision danger for autonomous unmanned vessels with the surface crafts facing them along their seaway. The intelligent assessment is carried out by synthesizing three values given by three modules which are different in input data. The first module uses the information on bearing and distance, the second one is based on computing distance and time of approach of ships, and the third renders the information on bearing, speed and a target ship heading got from the radar system. Each module actively processes the information got from sensors for transferring it to the intelligent unit, which decides on the necessity of maneuvering of collision avoidance to the dangerous objects found on a seaway of an autonomous unmanned vessel. Each module uses a model explored in fuzzy and neuro-fuzzy bases. Upon that, quality assessment calculations show it is the neuro-fuzzy approach that allows for a uniquely determined danger level.