Making Suggestion for automatic vessel operation using hydrographic charts

Abstract

Maritime Autonomous Ship Systems are expected to be one of the solutions to reduce the burden on seafarers, a long-standing issue for the shipping industry, and to solve the shortage of seafarers. One of the issues to be resolved in order to realize Maritime Autonomous Ship Systems is how to deal with obstacles. As many ships are involved in collisions with embarkations and various structures every year, it is essential for Maritime Autonomous Ship Systems to have the ability to avoid obstacles. Most obstacles are non-moving objects such as shoals and seawalls. Therefore, Maritime Autonomous Ship Systems do not need to use on-board sensors to detect them but can avoid them by generating a hydrographic chart with locations of the obstacles and combining them with a positioning system. This study presents the results of a prototype hydrographic chart based on actual measurements of underwater obstacles in the suburbs of an urban area.