Ship collision avoidance methods: State-of-the-art

• Published in: Safety science 2020-01, Vol.121, p.451-473
• Main Authors: Huang, Yamin, Chen, Linying, Chen, Pengfei, Negenborn, Rudy R., van Gelder, P.H.A.J.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Autonomous surface vehicle; Autonomous vehicles; Collision avoidance; Collision avoidance systems; Conflict detection; Conflict resolution; Domains; Human-machine interactions; Manned and unmanned ships; Motion perception; Navigation safety; Navigation systems; Prevention; Ship accidents & safety; Ships; Situational awareness; Unmanned vehicles
• ISSN: 0925-7535; 1879-1042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2019.09.018

•Comprehensive overview of collision avoidance methods for manned & unmanned ships.•Systematic classification of methods considering modules in collision avoidance.•Discussion on the limitations of emerging collision prevention techniques.•Discussion on the complementarity of the studies for manned and unmanned ships.•Research gaps in the transition from manned ships to fully unmanned ships. Collision prevention is critical for navigation safety at sea. At early ages, researchers aimed at developing navigational assistance systems for enhancing situational awareness of human operators as human is at the core of collision avoidance. Recently, autonomous vehicles have gained a remarkable amount of attention with a focus on solving collision problems by machines. This results in two groups of studies, both working on preventing collisions but with different focuses: one aims at conflict detection, and the other focuses on conflict resolution. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of collision prevention techniques based on the three basic processes of determining evasive solutions, namely, motion prediction, conflict detection, and conflict resolution. The strengths and weaknesses of different methods for these three fundamental processes are discussed. Limitations and new challenges are highlighted. Moreover, this review points out the differences between the research for manned and unmanned ships and how the research in the two domains can learn from each other. A potential roadmap for the transition from existing manned ships to fully unmanned ships is provided in the end.