A Study on Safer New Optimal Route for Anti-Collision in Coastal Waters

Abstract Although radar and AIS alarm functions have been used as support measures for collision prevention in many ships, they lacked the function to identify actual collision risk ships and inform the degree of risk and did not provide information on avoidance routes. This study aims to design a newly developed safer new optimal route for anti-collision based on the Collision Risk Zone assessment method, targeting mainly very small-sized ships that caused most of the collision accidents due to human errors. Designing a safer new optimal route is composed of three segments according to the ship’s characteristics. That is, empirical method for small-sized ships, collision risk zone method for larger ships and then combination method between empirical and collision risk method. In addition, this study analyzed the collision risk of various scenarios according to the navigation relationships and speed conditions between the two meeting ships. As a result, the model proposed in this study numerically calculated the risk of collision according to the navigation situation and could provide a safe optimal avoidance path accordingly. Therefore, this model can be applied to build the collision avoidance model of not only the current ship but remote-controlled ship, which is under compliance with COLREG regulations and involves the possibility of human error in an operation.