Coordinated Anti-Collision Path Planning Algorithm for Marine Surface Vessels

This article presents a coordinated anti-collision path planning algorithm for marine surface vessels in complex multi-ship encounter. Unlike previous research that follows the optimization sequence one step after the other from the prospective of single ship, a multi-stage anti-collision strategy from the overall perspective is established based on the principles of Synergetic theory and Queueing theory, which guarantees the compliance with navigation practice and the coordination among ships' avoidance actions. The concept of an optimization echelon is proposed to help categorize the optimization priority. Then a Multilayer Coding Genetic Algorithm enables all ships belonging to the same optimization echelon participate in the decision-making process simultaneously. Furthermore, the quantitative model of encounter situation is refined through the sensibility analysis. Finally, simulation examples consisting different traffic scenarios are analysed to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed scheme.