COLREGS-Complied Automatic Collision Avoidance for the Encounter Situations of Multiple Vessels

In crowded waters, the incidence of collision accidents of multiple vessels has increased significantly, most of which can be ascribed to human factors, particularly, human decision-making failures and inobservance with International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS). On this basis, an automatic collision avoidance strategy for the encounter situations of multiple vessels is proposed herein. First of all, a COLREGS-complied evasive action decision-making mechanism is established, which can determine the evasive action from the give-way vessel and stand-on vessel separately. It is worth emphasizing that the situation of vessels against COLREGS is taken into consideration herein. Furthermore, a novel automatic collision avoidance controller of multiple vessels on account of model predictive control (MPC) is devised, which can carry out control action ahead of time and handle the problem of rudder saturation. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed automatic collision avoidance strategy of multiple vessels is illustrated via extensive simulations.