A course against collision

摘要

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are able to conduct around-the-clock operations, carry out survey and surveillance operations, and can be employed as a cheap form of force multiplier, to name but a few. In the past, the majority of researchers tended to focus on developing state-of-the-art navigation, guidance and control (NGC) systems for uninhabited vehicles. Unfortunately, those systems, in their present form, do not necessarily deliver full autonomy. Hence, a human presence is mandatory to carry out tasks safely. Lately, a visible shift has been observed in improving the autonomy of unmanned vehicles. Here we report the development of a collision detection and avoidance system for a USV. A key advantage of the proposed methodology is that it generates paths that are in compliance with maritime laws on preventing collisions at sea commonly termed as COLREGs.