This paper presents a novel conflict resolution strategy for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) to safely navigate and avoid collisions in a multi-vessel environment at sea. Collisions between two or more marine vessels must be avoided by following the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). We propose strategy a two-phase strategy called as COLREGs Compliant Conflict-Resolving (COMCORE) strategy, that generates collision-free trajectories for ASVs while complying with COLREGs. In phase-1, a shortest path for each agent is determined, while in phase-2 conflicts are detected and resolved by modifying the path in compliance with COLREGs. COMCORE solution optimises vessel trajectories for lower costs while also providing a safe and collision-free plan for each vessel. Simulation results are presented to show the applicability of COMCORE for larger number agents with very low computational requirement and hence scalable. Further, we experimentally demonstrate COMCORE for two ASVs in a lake to show its ability to determine solution and implementation capability in the real-world.

翻译：本文提出了一种新型冲突消解策略，用于自主水面船只（ASVs）在多船海上环境中安全导航并避免碰撞。多艘船舶之间的碰撞必须通过遵循《国际海上避碰规则》（COLREGs）来避免。我们提出了一种名为“符合COLREGs的冲突消解”（COMCORE）的两阶段策略，该策略能为ASVs生成无碰撞轨迹，同时遵守COLREGs。在第一阶段，为每个智能体确定最短路径；在第二阶段，通过修改路径以符合COLREGs来检测并消解冲突。COMCORE解决方案在优化船舶轨迹以降低航程成本的同时，还为每艘船舶提供安全且无碰撞的航行方案。仿真结果展示了COMCORE在极低计算需求下适用于大量智能体的可扩展性。此外，我们在湖中通过两艘ASVs实验验证了COMCORE求解能力及现实世界中的实施能力。