Efficient Autonomous Sailing System in Real-life Scenarios - Advanced multi-object tracking and collision avoidance algorithms

With the rise of the self-driving cars and other autonomous systems, the development and application of autonomous vessels are also getting increasing attention. Autonomous sailing from a location A to a location B has to take both safety and financial concerns into consideration. This Ph.D. thesis wants to address this challenge by combining a cost optimization algorithm, a situational awareness algorithm, and a collision avoidance algorithm together with an optimal dynamic route planning method in real-time. A balance between computational efficiency and effectiveness will be sought. Both separate simulations of each aspect as well as integrating simulations covering all aspects at once will be done to demonstrate the effectiveness of all these algorithms and the trustworthiness of the whole system.