Multiship collision risk assessment based on velocity obstacle method

Ship collision risk assessment is one of the important methods to discover the potential risks of navigation in time. This study proposed a maritime collision risk assessment model based on velocity obstacle methods. In this model, the velocity obstacle method is used to determine whether there is a conflict relationship between ships and also used as the basis to determine the edges and the weights of the ship conflict network in multi-ship encounter situation. And we combined the evaluation indexes of complex network to comprehensively assess the collision risk and find ships with high navigational risk. Simulation analysis was performed to verify the risk assessment method proposed in this paper. The results show that the model can effectively evaluate the collision risk and identify the key risk vessels in the multi-ship encounter situation, assist deck officers to make proper collision-avoidance decision, and provide a theoretical basis for collision prevention under complex navigation conditions.