A study on the verification of collision avoidance support system in real voyages

The objectives of this paper are to describe the development results of the ship collision avoidance support system called HiCASS (Hyundai intelligent Collision Avoidance Support System) and present the real ship voyage test results of the system. This system automatically evaluates the risk of detected objects around ship using the information from AIS (Automatic Identification System), Radar ARPA (Automatic Radar Plotting Aid) and ENC (Electronic Navigational Chart). And if the risk is over the predefined level, it recommends the detour routes according to the COLREGs 1972 (International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972). Its usability has been verified in real round voyages between South Korea and Europe cooperating with HMM (Hyundai Merchant Marine). As a result, it is found that the system gives alarms at proper time and avoidable routes in complicated collision situations but the suggested collision avoidance routes are comparatively larger than the real action of officers.