Title: Simulation of unmanned ship real-time trajectory planning model based on Q-learning

Authors: Jindong Liu; Jie Yang; Zhiqiang Guo; Hui Cao; Yongmei Ren

Addresses: Hubei Key Laboratory of Broadband Wireless Communication and Sensor Networks, School of Information Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China ' Hubei Key Laboratory of Broadband Wireless Communication and Sensor Networks, School of Information Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China ' Hubei Key Laboratory of Broadband Wireless Communication and Sensor Networks, School of Information Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China ' Hubei Key Laboratory of Broadband Wireless Communication and Sensor Networks, School of Information Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China ' Hubei Key Laboratory of Broadband Wireless Communication and Sensor Networks, School of Information Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

Abstract: In view of the challenge in autonomous navigation of unmanned ships where environmental conditions are complicated, this paper proposes a global trajectory planning model with local risk collision avoidance. The model establishes MAKLINK global connectivity map from original sea area, and provides global trajectory planning strategy based on ACO algorithm, and then introduces Q-learning algorithm to realise local risk collision avoidance, thus achieving real-time trajectory planning for unmanned ships. Compared to traditional models, our proposed one reduces level of complexity in environmental modelling, without bringing path uncertainty due to the presence of reinforcement learning and also has a faster trajectory convergence rate and shorter path length. This work would bring meaningful insights to future autonomous navigation research.

Keywords: unmanned ship; real-time trajectory planning; ACO algorithm; Q-learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2021.118837

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2021 Vol.16 No.4, pp.290 - 299

Received: 05 Jan 2021
Accepted: 18 May 2021
Published online: 08 Nov 2021 *

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