• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.66-74
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• 2023

With the increase of interest in developing Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), an optimal ship route planning is gradually gaining popularity as one of the important subsystems for autonomy of modern marine vessels. In the present paper, an optimal ship route planning model for MASS is proposed using a nonlinear MPC approach together with a nonlinear MMG model. Results drawn from this study demonstrated that the optimization problem for the ship route was successfully solved with satisfaction of the nonlinear dynamics of the ship and all constraints for the state and manipulated variables using the nonlinear MPC approach. Given that a route generation system capable of accounting for nonlinear dynamics of the ship and equality/inequality constraints is essential for achieving fully autonomous navigation at sea, it is expected that this paper will contribute to the field of autonomous vehicles by demonstrating the performance of the proposed optimal ship route planning model.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2023

In 2017, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted MSC.428 (98), which recommends establishing a cyber-risk management system in Ship Safety Management Systems (SMSs) from January 2021. The 27th International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) also discussed prioritizing cyber-security (cyber-risk management) in developing systems to support Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) operations (IALA guideline on developments in maritime autonomous surface ships). In response to these international discussions, Korea initiated the Korea Autonomous Surface Ship technology development project (KASS project) in 2020. Korea has been carrying out detailed tasks for cybersecurity technology development since 2021. This paper outlines the basic concept of ship network security equipment for supporting MASS ship operation in detailed task of cybersecurity technology development and defines ship network security equipment interface for MASS ship applications.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.183-188
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• 2022

Recently, more and more researches aimed at the development of automated and autonomous ships are appearing in the scientific environment. One of the main reason is the need to solve the problems of safe navigation and reducing accidents due to human factor, as well as the ever-increasing problem associated with the lack of qualified maritime personnel. Development of technologies based on application of artificial intelligence also plays important role, after all for realization of autonomous navigation concept and enhancement of ship automatic maneuvering processes, advancement of maneuvering functions and elaboration of specific algorithms on prevention of close quarter situations and dangerous approach of ships will be required. The purpose of this work is the review of preconditions of occurrence of the autonomous ship navigation conception, overview of introduction stages and prospects for ship remote control based on unmanned technologies, analysis of technical and intellectual decisions of autonomous surface ships, main research tendencies. The research revealed that the technology of autonomous ship navigation requires further development and improvement, especially in terms of the data transmission protocols upgrading, sensors of navigation information and automatic control systems modernization, which allows to perform monitoring of equipment with the aim of improving the functions of control over the autonomous surface ship operation.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.435-440
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• 2022

The development and introduction of a Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) are some of the most important changes leading to the fourth industrial era in the maritime area. The term 'MASS' refers to a ship operating independently, without human intervention, to reduce maritime accidents caused by human errors. Recent UK findings MASS also noted that particularly the dynamic positioning system will be considered to apply as newly function to a MASS. The DP system, a ship system developed decades ago and used for specific purposes like offshore operations, provides various functions to facilitate the accurate movements of the vessel, and operators can make decisions within the DP system, in addition to the ordinary ship system. In this paper, it would like to present the connection and application method with the main technical elements of the DP system in connection with the main technology of the DP system to achieve the safe operation of a MASS. In particular, among various position reference systems, the capability plot function of DP system, and the "follow target" mode in the operation mode are attractive functions that can contribute to the safe operation of autonomous ships.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.507-513
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• 2018

The maritime autonomous surface ship is automatically collects and manages various information necessary for the operation to minimize human intervention and safely perform the mission assigned to the ship. And the ship may autonomously operate the partial or entire route to the destination determined by the ship himself. This ship navigation technology allows partially remote control the ship to be operated if necessary. The maritime autonomous surface ship (MASS) should collect and manage signals of various navigation communication equipments and engines mounted on the ship for safe operation. This requires a common platform technology. In this paper, we propose a common platform that is the core of smart ship implementation. Territorial authorities and ships are connected by satellite or terrestrial communication. In such a communication environment, information is exchanged smoothly in real time. This allows the onshore authorities to monitor ships and provide remote control to enable safe vessel navigation at sea.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.48-48
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• 2018

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.419-429
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• 2023

The pinnacle of rapidly changing and advancing maritime transportation technology is expected to be the Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS). The implementation of various services within the MASS is likely to be feasible through the ship-centric network known as the S2X communication system. However, existing communication systems face issues such as service traffic saturation and failure to meet demanded functionalities, necessitating the proactive introduction of additional communication technologies. In this study, the concept of S2X communication for the MASS was redefined, deriving required functionalities and ultimately selecting frequencies suitable for utilization. Candidate frequency groups suitable for the derived communication requirements were identified, and communication frequencies prioritized for the initial application were chosen through expert consensus. It is anticipated that through further research, including experimentation to validate these frequencies, they could be utilized in implementing services for autonomous ship navigation in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.281-287
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• 2023

Establishing a ship's passage plan is an essential step before it starts to sail. The research related to the automatic generation of ship passage plans is attracting attention because of the development of maritime autonomous surface ships. In coastal water navigation, the land, islands, and navigation rules need to be considered. From the path planning algorithm's perspective, a ship's passage planning is a global path-planning problem. Because conventional global path-planning methods such as Dijkstra and A^* are time-consuming owing to the processes such as environmental modeling, it is difficult to modify a ship's passage plan during a voyage. Therefore, the D^* algorithm was used to address these problems. The starting point was near Busan New Port, and the destination was Ulsan Port. The navigable area was designated based on a combination of the ship trajectory data and grid in the target area. The initial path plan generated using the D^* algorithm was analyzed with 33 waypoints and a total distance of 113.946 km. The final path plan was simplified using the Douglas-Peucker algorithm. It was analyzed with a total distance of 110.156 km and 10 waypoints. This is approximately 3.05% less than the total distance of the initial passage plan of the ship. This study demonstrated the feasibility of automatically generating a path plan in coastal navigation for maritime autonomous surface ships using the D^* algorithm. Using the shortest distance-based path planning algorithm, the ship's fuel consumption and sailing time can be minimized.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.460-468
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• 2020

Research related to the technology developed for the Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) is currently underway. Although one of those core technologies is collision-avoidance technology for ship operators at sea, no research has been done to objectively quantify its effectiveness. Therefore, this study was conducted to develop an evaluation model to examine the collision-avoidance ability of MASS. Ship-control experts performed a ship-handling simulation for each ship encounter type using the Full Mission Ship-handling Simulator (FMSS). We used the resulting data and technical statistics, to develop an evaluation model that utilized FMSS to quantify the operational capability of the collision-avoidance technology. This evaluation model also can be used at sea to assess deck officers' ability to use the technology and to improve and develop other MASS technologies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.258-260
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• 2023

목포해양대학교와 삼성중공업은 2021년 공동 연구를 통하여 '실습선 기반 원격/자율 운항 선박 시스템 개발 및 검증'을 수행하였고 이를 통하여 목포해양대학교 실습선인 세계로호를 활용하여 삼성중공업의 자율운항 선박 시스템(Autonomous Navigation System)인 SAS의 Test Bed 시연 실험 시스템을 구축하여 2022년 자율운항 선박(MASS) 기술 요소에 대한 시뮬레이션 기반 SAS(Samsung Autonomous Ship) System 검증 및 '운항 노선에 대한 설정을 통한 선박 자율운항 검증'을 위한 실선·실해역 실험을 통해 이를 시연 및 검증을 시행하였다. 특히 의미 있는 것은 자율운항선박 실선 테스트 과정 중 발생할 수 있는 모든 위험요소 분석을 위해 한국선급과 HAZID Workship을 실시하였고, 이를 통해 국내최초 자율운항실험용 기국 승인 및 선급임시검사 완료 후 실험이 진행되었다는 것이다. 이 연구에서는 실습선 기반 자율운항 선박 실해역 실험 연구를 소개하고 그 결과를 운항자 입장에서 분석하여 향후 보완하여야 할 사항을 제시하였다.