COLREG-Compliant Simulation Environment for Verifying USV Motion Planning Algorithms

Abstract

We consider the problem of testing and verifying motion planning algorithms for unmanned surface vehicles under realistic scenarios where multiple vessels travel around as they do in the real world. Once a planning algorithm is developed for USVs, it is crucial to test a planning algorithm under scenarios that closely resemble real world conditions, which include environmental disturbances and real marine traffic. To this end, we present an open-source Virtual RobotX-based simulation environment that enables researchers to add an arbitrary number of vessels and manually defined their routes, or automatically generate them from AIS data. Each vessel is equipped with global and local motion controllers complying with COLREGs.