• 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 the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.798-807
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• 2021

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship(MASS) are expected to emerge in the shipping industry. There has been much active research on collision avoidance systems regarding MASSs, but most of it has focused on merchant ships. A study of collision avoidance systems in fishing vessels is also essential, because Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships will encounter all type of vessels. In this study, the minimum passage distance between small-medium-sized fishing vessels and other vessels was investigated for the Ship's domain analysis. Based on the AIS data of Busan port and the adjacent area, the separation distances of fishing vessels were analyzed. The results indicated that as the speed of fishing vessels increased, the distance increased from 4L to 8L, and as length of the fishing vessels increased, the distance decreased from 10L to 6L. It is believed that the results of this study can be applied in the future to collision avoidance models for MASSs that reflect the domain of fishing vessels.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.219-236
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• 2013

The accurate prediction of motion in waves of a marine vehicle is essential to assess the maximum sea state vs. operational requirements. This is particularly true for small crafts, such as Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASV). Two different numerical methods to predict motions of a SWATH-ASV are considered: an inviscid strip theory initially developed at MIT for catamarans and then adapted for SWATHs and new a hybrid strip theory, based on the numerical solution of the radiation forces by an unsteady viscous, non-linear free surface flow solver. Motion predictions obtained by the viscous flow method are critically discussed against those obtained by potential flow strip theory. Effects of viscosity are analyzed by comparison of sectional added mass and damping calculated at different frequencies and for different sections, RAOs and motions response in irregular waves at zero speed. Some relevant conclusions can be drawn from this study: influence of viscosity is definitely non negligible for SWATH vessels like the one presented: amplitude of the pitch and heave motions predicted at the resonance frequency differ of 20% respectively and 50%; in this respect, the hybrid method with fully non-linear, viscous free surface calculation of the radiation forces turns out to be a very valuable tool to improve the accuracy of traditional strip theories, without the burden of long computational times requested by fully viscous time domain three dimensional simulations.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2021

According to the increasing interest and demand for the Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASV), the autonomous navigation system is being developed such as obstacle detection, avoidance, and path planning. In general, autonomous navigation algorithm controls the ship by detecting the obstacles with various sensors and planning path for collision avoidance. This study aims to construct and prove autonomous algorithm with integrated various sensor using the Robot Operating System (ROS). In this study, the safety zone technique was used to avoid obstacles. The safety zone was selected by an algorithm to determine an obstacle-free area using 2D LiDAR. Then, drift angle of the ship was controlled by the propulsion difference of the port and starboard side that based on PID control. The algorithm performance was verified by participating in the 2020 Korea Autonomous BOAT (KABOAT).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.62-70
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• 2019

The APR1400 reactor may be operated for a long time under high temperature and pressure conditions, causing damage to the stud holes and causing stud bolts and holes to stick. The present practice is to manually remove the anti-sticking agent and foreign matter remaining in the APR1400 reactor stud hole and to visually check the surface condition of the thread to check the damage status of the threads. In the case of the APR1400 reactor stud holes, manually cleaning the threads increases the risk of radiation exposure and operator's fatigue. To avoid this, the autonomous mobile robot is used to automatically clean the reactor stud holes. The purpose of this study is to optimize the cleaning performance of the mobile robot by looking at the behavior of the surface roughness of the stud surface cleaned by the brush attached to the mobile robot due to changes in brush material, thickness of wire, and rotation speed. A microscopic approach to the surface roughness of the flank is needed to investigate the effects of the newly proposed brush of the autonomous mobile robot on the thread holes. According to this experiment, it is reasonable to use STS brush rather than Carbon one. Optimal operating conditions are derived and the safety of APR1400 reactor stud holes maintenance can be improved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.54-55
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• 2020

In 4th Industrial Revolution, technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and Big data are closely related to the maritime industry, which led to the birth of autonomous vessels. Due to the technical characteristics of the current vessel, the speed cannot be suddenly lowered, so complex communication such as the help of a tug boat, boarding of a pilot, and control of the vessel at the onshore control center is required to berth at the port. In this study, clustering analysis was used to resolve how to establish control criteria for vessels to enter port when autonomous vessels are operating. K-Means clustering was used to quantitatively stage the arrival pattern based on the accumulated AIS(Automatic Identification System) data of the incoming vessel, and the arrival phase using SOG(Speed over Ground), COG(Course over Ground), and ROT(Rate of Turn) Was divided into six phase.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.303-308
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• 2009

Recently, unmanned systems have been studied and developed in various areas including aircrafts, automobiles and vessels. In addition, many researches about unmanned systems in Korea have been studying actively with the advancement of IT However, it is not satisfied with the result of the researches and developments. Bemuse of the reason we've here tried to make a very small USV which is a barge type. We applied the Great circle navigation calculation based on GPS to the autonomous navigation algorithm and used the LabVIEW 8.2 developed by NI corp. for programming The engine and rudder were controlled by pulse width modulation method. The engine system was composed of the DC motor and ESC(Electronic Speed Controller). It was also applied by the direct cooling system using DC motor pump. A very small USV was designed and made by ourself and it was verified the effectiveness of autonomous navigation algorithm through the tests at the sea.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2019

This study presents an automatic collision avoidance algorithm for autonomous navigation of unmanned surface vessels. The performance of the collision avoidance algorithm is heavily dependent on the estimation quality of the course and speed of traffic ships because collision avoidance maneuvers should be determined based on the predicted motions of the traffic ships and their trajectory uncertainties. In this study, the collision avoidance algorithm is implemented based on the Probabilistic Velocity Obstacle (PVO) approach considering the maritime collision regulations (COLREGs). In order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm, an extensive set of simulations was conducted and the results are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2019.11a
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• pp.107-108
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• 2019

In the past, regional pilot service is provided by individual pilots directly on board each ship, but it will be difficult to provide this type of service in the near future when autonomous vessels are activated. This can be seen as the need for automation and intelligence of pilot service and provision of remote control system. In this paper, we propose a method, system, and service target that can carry out the electronic pilot service through the intelligence aids to navigation for smart port operation.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.170-184
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• 2024

With the advancement of autonomous navigation technology in maritime domain, there is an active research on swarming Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) that can fulfill missions with low cost and high efficiency. In this study, we propose a formation control algorithm that maintains a certain shape when multiple unmanned surface vehicles operate in a swarm. In the case of swarming, individual USVs need to be able to accurately follow the target state and avoid collisions with obstacles or other vessels in the swarm. In order to generate guidance commands for swarm formation control, the potential field method has been a major focus of swarm control research, but the method using the potential field only uses the position information of obstacles or other ships, so it cannot effectively respond to moving targets and obstacles. In situations such as the formation change of a swarm of ships, the formation control is performed in a dense environment, so the position and velocity information of the target and nearby obstacles must be considered to effectively change the formation. In order to overcome these limitations, this paper applies a method that considers relative velocity to the potential field-based guidance law to improve target following and collision avoidance performance. Considering the relative velocity of the moving target, the potential field for nearby obstacles is newly defined by utilizing the concept of Velocity Obstacle (VO), and the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method is verified through swarm control simulation, and swarm control experiments using a small scaled unmanned surface vehicle platform.