Development of intelligent navigation system based on digital bridge system for maritime autonomous surface ships: Framework design and system integration

Abstract

This paper introduces an intelligent navigation system that consists of a situational awareness system, an autonomous navigation system, and a digital bridge system for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASSs) at sea. Above all, the intelligent navigation system for MASSs should be desired and developed to achieve a high level of autonomy. The situational awareness system is composed of various perception sensors (i.e., cameras, lidar, and radar) and provides the motion information estimated from automatically detected objects as well as the situational information required to maneuver at sea. The autonomous navigation system is developed to safely maneuver to prevent a potential risk on the maneuvering trajectory of MASS. In particular, the digital bridge system enables to provision of various information for the situational awareness system and autonomous navigation system considering a transition function of control modes with autonomy level (i.e., remote, semi-autonomous, and fully autonomous operating modes) as well as data acquisition, classification, and management with a variety of navigational and engine devices and systems. The developed intelligent navigation system was integrated into the ship built as a testbed system to verify the performance of the autonomous operation function, and preliminary tests were conducted, and then the results of the developed system were described.