Model predictive control for autonomous ship navigation with colreg compliance and chart-based path planning

Potočnik, Primož (author)

Autonomous ship navigation systems must ensure safe and efficient route planning while complying with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). This paper presents an integrated navigation framework that combines chart-based global path planning with a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach for local trajectory tracking and COLREG-compliant collision avoidance. The method generates feasible reference routes using maritime charts and predefined waypoints, while the MPC controller ensures precise path following and dynamic re-planning in response to nearby vessels and coastal obstacles. Coastal features and shorelines are modeled using Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography data, enabling MPC to treat landmasses as static obstacles. Other vessels are represented as dynamic obstacles with varying speeds and headings, and COLREG rules are embedded within the MPC framework to enable rule-compliant maneuvering during encounters. To address real-time computational constraints, a simplified MPC formulation is introduced, balancing predictive accuracy with computational efficiency, making the approach suitable for embedded implementations. The navigation framework is implemented in a MATLAB-based simulation with real-time visualization supporting multi-vessel scenarios and COLREG-aware vessel interactions. Simulation results demonstrate robust performance across diverse maritime scenarios—including complex multi-ship encounters and constrained coastal navigation—while maintaining the shortest safe routes. By seamlessly integrating chart-aware path planning with COLREG-compliant, MPC-based collision avoidance, the proposed framework offers an effective, scalable, and robust solution for autonomous maritime navigation.

• Language: English
• Keywords: autonomous ships, maritime navigation, model predictive control, COLREG compliance, collision avoidance
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 22 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 13, iss. 7, art. 1246
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169985
• UDC: 629.05
• ISSN on article: 2077-1312
• DOI: 10.3390/jmse13071246
• COBISS.SI-ID: 240837123
• Publication date in RUL: 30.06.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of marine science and engineering
• Shortened title: J. mar. sci. eng.
• Publisher: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
• ISSN: 2077-1312
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523219993

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0241
• Name: Sinergetika kompleksnih sistemov in procesov