Owing to the space–air–ground integrated networks (SAGIN), seaborne shipping has attracted increasing interest in the research on the motion behavior knowledge extraction and navigation pattern mining problems in the era of maritime big data for improving maritime traffic safety management. This study aims to develop a novel unsupervised methodology for feature extraction and knowledge discovery based on automatic identification system (AIS) data, allowing for seamless knowledge transfer to support trajectory data mining. The unsupervised hierarchical methodology is constructed from three parts: trajectory compression, trajectory similarity measure, and trajectory clustering. In the first part, an adaptive Douglas–Peucker with speed (ADPS) algorithm is created to preserve critical features, obtain useful information, and simplify trajectory information. Then, dynamic time warping (DTW) is utilized to measure the similarity between trajectories as the critical indicator in trajectory clustering. Finally, the improved spectral clustering with mapping (ISCM) is presented to extract vessel traffic behavior characteristics and mine movement patterns for enhancing marine safety and situational awareness. Comprehensive experiments are conducted and implemented in the Chengshan Jiao Promontory in China to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the novel methodology. Experimental results show that the proposed methodology can effectively compress the trajectories, determine the number of clusters in advance, guarantee the clustering accuracy, and extract useful navigation knowledge while significantly reducing the computational cost. The clustering results are further explored and follow the Gaussian mixture distribution, which can help provide new discriminant criteria for trajectory clustering. 

Unsupervised hierarchical methodology of maritime traffic pattern extraction for knowledge discovery

Extracting ship stopping information from AIS data

A novel ship trajectory clustering method for Finding Overall and Local Features of Ship Trajectories

Abstract A multiple clustering algorithm based on high-dimensional automatic identification system (AIS) data is proposed to extract the important waypoints in the ship’s navigation trajectory based on selected AIS attribute features and construct a route network using the waypoints. The algorithm improves the accuracy of route network planning by using the latitude and longitude of the historical voyage trajectory and the heading to the ground. Unlike the navigation clustering method that only uses ship latitude and longitude coordinates, the algorithm first calculates the major waypoints using Clustering in QUEst (CLIQUE) and Balance Iterative Reducing and Clustering Using Hierarchies (BIRCH) algorithms, and then builds the route network using network construction. Under the common PC specification (i5 processor), this algorithm forms 440 major waypoints from 220,133 AIS data and constructs a route network with directional features in 5 min, which is faster in computing speed and more suitable for complex ship trajectory differentiation and can extend the application boundary of ship route planning. 

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A novel high-dimensional trajectories construction network based on multi-clustering algorithm

Maritime traffic pattern recognition plays a major role in intelligent transportation services, ship monitoring, route planning, and other fields. Facilitated by the establishment of terrestrial networks and satellite constellations of the automatic identification system (AIS), large quantities of spatial and temporal information make ships’ paths trackable and are useful in maritime traffic pattern research. The maritime traffic pattern may vary with changes in the traffic environment, so the recognition method of the maritime traffic pattern should be adaptable to changes in the traffic environment. To achieve this goal, a dynamic maritime traffic pattern recognition method is presented using AIS data, which are cleaned, compressed, partitioned, and clustered online. Old patterns are removed as expired trajectories are deleted, and new patterns are created as new trajectories are added. This method is suitable for processing massive stream data. Experiments show that when the marine traffic route changes due to the navigation environment, the maritime traffic pattern adjusts automatically.

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Chunhua Tang

Papers

A method for compressing AIS trajectory data based on the adaptive-threshold Douglas-Peucker algorithm

A novel ship trajectory clustering method for Finding Overall and Local Features of Ship Trajectories

An improved OPTICS clustering algorithm for discovering clusters with uneven densities