The automatic identification system (AIS) tracks vessel movement by means of electronic exchange of navigation data between vessels, with onboard transceiver, terrestrial, and/or satellite base stations. The gathered data contain a wealth of information useful for maritime safety, security, and efficiency. Because of the close relationship between data and methodology in marine data mining and the importance of both of them in marine intelligence research, this paper surveys AIS data sources and relevant aspects of navigation in which such data are or could be exploited for safety of seafaring, namely traffic anomaly detection, route estimation, collision prediction, and path planning.

Exploiting AIS Data for Intelligent Maritime Navigation: A Comprehensive Survey From Data to Methodology

Probability modelling of vessel collisions

https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/10072/44187/1/77123_1.pdf

Ship collision risk assessment for the Singapore Strait

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

Efficient marine navigation through obstructions is still one of the many problems faced by the mariner. Many accidents can be traced to human error, recently increased traffic densities and the average cruise speed of ships impedes the collision avoidance decision making process further in the sense that decisions have to be made in reduced time. It seems logical that the decision making process be computerised and automated as a step forward to reduced the risk of collision. This article reviews the development of collision avoidance techniques and path planning for ships, particularly when engaged in close range encounters. In addition, previously published works have been categorised and their shortcomings highlighted in order to identify the 'state of the art' and issues in close range marine navigation.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0373463308005134

Review of collision avoidance and path planning methods for ships in close range encounters

Review of ship safety domains: Models and applications

The paper introduces a new measure of collision risk derived from the concept of a ship domain. Its simplicity and the fact that it takes into account the courses of both ships, makes it a good alternative to the commonly used term of the distance at the closest point of approach (DCPA). The measure being presented is flexible enough to be applied in combination with any given ship domain. Derivations of all the necessary equations for the Fuji domain have been presented in detail. Additionally, the paper contains numerical algorithms that are capable of determining value of the measure for any other ship domain. Based on these algorithms a generic method for determination of the necessary course alteration is developed. Also, an example of an already known formula for risk assessment, that may benefit from the measure, is provided. All of the algorithms, formulas and their derivations in the text are presented explicitly, so that they could be directly applied in any collision avoidance or VTS system.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0373463306003833

A Unified Measure Of Collision Risk Derived From The Concept Of A Ship Domain

An Analysis of Domain-Based Ship Collision Risk Parameters

The article introduces a method of finding optimal routes on raster planes. The method presented takes advantage of a new algorithm that tends to minimize a number of direction changes within a route, while steering clear of the obstacles. Two different schemes, suitable for restricted area Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) system and collision avoidance system located on the own ship are described. The VTS-oriented scheme supports VTS priority policy that may extend or override international give-way regulations. The own-ship routing scheme in a give-way situation is capable of determining the shortest safe path to the destination point. The method takes into account own ship dynamics. It has linear time and space complexities and therefore is sufficiently fast to perform real-time routing on the raster grids. Both the general method and the algorithm it uses are presented in detail in the paper. Implementation issues are also discussed.

A new method of ship routing on raster grids, with turn penalties and collision avoidance

The paper introduces a new method of solving multi-ship encounter situations for both open waters and restricted water regions. The method, called evolutionary sets of safe trajectories, combines some of the assumptions of game theory with evolutionary programming and aims to find optimal sets of safe trajectories of all ships involved in an encounter situation. In a two-ship encounter situation it enables the operator of an onboard collision-avoidance system to predict the most probable behaviour of a target and to plan the own manoeuvres in advance. In a multi-ship encounter the method may be used to help an operator of a VTS system to coordinate the manoeuvres of all ships. The paper contains a detailed description of collision-avoidance operators used by the evolutionary method and simulation examples of the method's results for digital maps.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0373463310000238

Rafal Szlapczynski

Papers

Review of ship safety domains: Models and applications

A Unified Measure Of Collision Risk Derived From The Concept Of A Ship Domain

An Analysis of Domain-Based Ship Collision Risk Parameters

A new method of ship routing on raster grids, with turn penalties and collision avoidance

Evolutionary Sets Of Safe Ship Trajectories: A New Approach To Collision Avoidance