A Balance-Artificial Potential Field Method for Autonomous Surface Vessel Navigation in Unstructured Riverine Environment

Obstacles avoidance of Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV) in riverine environment is challenging since the motion space is constrained by the unstructured riverbanks, especially for the track keeping cruise task. This paper proposes a balance-Artificial Potential Field (APF) hybrid method to realize the ASV track-keeping and obstacles avoidance. The balance scheme is to keep the ASV cruise in the center of river while the Artificial Potential Field method is to avoid obstacles. The simulation results show that this approach is efficient for ASV navigation and successfully avoid obstacles in challenging situations, such as narrow passage and S-shape avoidance.