A Research on the Optimum Patrol Route for Quad-maran Automated Vessel

Abstract

　This research aims to assess the optimum route proposal system for a four-hull automated navigation vessel ”Quad-maran” by conducting actual sea tests and simulations. The route proposal system is mainly built based on considerations of obstacle avoidance, navigation performance, and operation of multiple vessels. In this paper, the optimal route proposed in the simulations will be verified with the actual sea tests focusing on two aspects. Firstly, it is verified that the proposed patrol route is appropriately executed from the actual sea test results. Secondly, the simulation to incorporate and operate multiple vessels is developed. From the results, it has been found that the cruising time predicted in the simulation is different from the actual cruising time in actual sea tests. An attempt is made to understand the error in cruising time for each section of the patrol route. A simulation of using two vessels is also shown as a demonstration. Further, the disadvantages of clustering measurement points in the K-means method are also clarified.