COLREGs-aware Trajectory Optimization for Autonomous Surface Vessels

This paper presents a rule-compliant trajectory optimization method for the guidance and control of autonomous surface vessels. The method builds on Model Predictive Contouring Control and incorporates the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea - known as COLREGs - relevant for motion planning. We use these traffic rules...

Multi-Objective Cooperative Control for a Ship-Towing System in Congested Water Traffic Environments

This paper proposes a multi-objective cooperative control method for a ship-towing system in congested water traffic environments. The control objectives are to coordinate multiple autonomous tugboats for transporting a ship to: (i) follow the waypoints, (ii) adjust the heading, (iii) track the speed profile, and (iv) resolve collisions. The...

Regulations Aware Motion Planning for Autonomous Surface Vessels in Urban Canals

With a growing number of citizens and tourists, the scarce public space, roads, and public transport in Amsterdam are experiencing rising pressure. Instead of utilizing the conventional transportation routes, Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs) could transport goods and people via the 165 canals present in Amsterdam. <br/>However, urban canals are...

Multi-vessel cooperative speed regulation for ship manipulation in towing scenarios

This paper proposes a multi-agent control scheme for multiple physically interconnected tugboats performing a ship towing process. These tugs are coordinated by two control layers. In the higher layer, the supervisory controller outputs the desired towing forces and reference trajectories for the tugs. This information is used by a tug's...

Distributed Leader-Follower Formation Control for Autonomous Vessels based on Model Predictive Control

Formation control of autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) has been studied extensively over the last few years since it offers promising advantages. In this paper, two control methods for distributed leader-follower formation control are proposed: A Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (MPC) method and an MPC method using Feedback Linearization. One...

Waste Collection in Amsterdam Centrum Using Autonomous Vessels: Optimization of container type selection and location for household waste collection in Amsterdam Centrum with Autonomous Vessels (Roboats)

This research strives to contribute to the solution of the Amsterdam waste problem by improving the location determination of the various container types within the Centrum area. One of the modalities is an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV), and in this case, a Roboat. Since it is not possible to assign all demand to one modality, also trucks and...

Roboat Formation Control: Sailing in Formation for Waste Transport using Roboat units

Formation control of autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) is researched extensively in the last years, since it has promising applications. However very few designed strategies have been validated during real experiments. In this research, two<br/>control methods for distributed leader-follower formation control are proposed: A Nonlinear Model...

Cooperative multi-vessel systems in urban waterway networks

Urban waterways have great potential in cargo transport to relieve the congestion in the overloaded road networks. This paper explores the potential of applying cooperative multi-vessel systems (CMVSs) to improve the safety and efficiency of transport in urban waterway networks. A framework consisting of vessel train formation (VTF) and...

Adaptive predictive path following control based on least squares support vector machines for underactuated autonomous vessels

Since vessel dynamics could vary during maneuvering because of load changes, speed changing, environmental disturbances, aging of mechanism, etc., the performance of model-based path following control may be degraded if the controller uses the same motion model all the time. This article proposes an adaptive path following control method...