Dynamic path planning of USV with towed safety boundary in complex ocean environment

In order to solve the problem of USV dynamic path planning with towed safety boundary in complex marine environment, an adaptive USV dynamic path planning algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the obstacle avoidance problem of the USV with the towed safety boundary and the bounded tension problem of the cable array are analyzed respectively, and then correspondent safety boundary model and tension boundary condition are established. Secondly, a fuzzy mechanism strategy is developed to automatically choose an appropriate local searching radius according to the degree of the complex obstacles. Moreover, for some constraints such as large-angle turn and path demand in the process of path planning, the USV perspective self-adjusting mechanism and smooth optimization schedule of the path are designed to make it more feasible. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can enable the USV with towed safety boundary to carry out dynamic path planning in the complex ocean environment effectively.

1 Introduction

As a new type of maritime intelligent vehicle, unmanned surface vehicle (USV) plays an important role in civilian and military field, such as ocean environment monitoring, military reconnaissance and coastal defense [1]. With the development and maturity of USV technology in recent years, USV has made important breakthrough in path planning, environmental awareness and wireless communication technology, which also has been applied to vary fields under human supervision [2].