Automatic, cooperative maneuvering of watercraft within ports

• Port rules and COLREG-compliant automatic, cooperative maneuvering in confined waters. • Model-based maneuver planning, automatic control and trajectory optimization. • Trajectory tracking control with an adaptive MPC for each vehicle. • Evasive trajectories from the solution of a nonlinear optimal control problem. • High transparency of automatic functionalities for responsible nautical personnel. This paper presents the latest results of real-world tests for automatic, cooperative maneuvering of three watercraft within the confined waters of a port, the research vessel DENEB as welll as the smaller vehicles BELA and the unmanned surface vehicle MESSIN . The new developments follow the method of successive maneuver automation based on assistance systems for the nautical personnel. The contribution describes the rule compliant maneuver design, the nautical safety aspects as well as the setups for the simulation and tests in the real port. An adaptive model predictive controller is used for each of the vehicles. For this ship-specific controller approach, the basic motion models, the controller design, the various control modes and the allocation solutions are explained more in detail. The original manoeuvre paths that would lead to a collision between the vehicles are resolved collision-free with the help of trajectory optimization.The successive optimization for collision avoidance is treated as a nonlinear optimal control problem which is presented with its structure and the optimization criteria. Finally, an outlook on future work is given on how test scenarios can be expanded step by step in order to map holistic use cases in maritime practice.